# The Road of Make-Believe explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ameen Rihani.

## What happens

Three stanzas depict a woman clinging to a faded dream of love while singing of new love, a man pursuing power and self-admiration, and the two walking together in a landscape of illusion, each hiding their true regret as they follow divergent paths—one toward ruin, the other toward God.

## Themes in this chapter

### Desire and Restraint

The woman's first Desire and her clinging to self-love versus new-born love; the man's self-intoxication and dream of power.

### Exile and Belonging

The couple walks together yet each is isolated in their own illusions, unable to understand the other's purpose.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown Narrator

The narrator describes the woman, the man, and their joint journey on the Road of Make-Believe.

### Allah

Implied as the divine toward which the woman is heading ('she, to God').

## Key lines

> She sits upon a rock along the stream That heard the whisper of her first Desire, Washing the faded garment of her Dream

A woman sits by a stream that witnessed her first longing, cleaning the worn-out remnants of her ambition.

_Opening image of the woman's nostalgic and futile attempt to revive her dream._

> He seeks the path of glory in the noon Of self-intoxication, dreaming still Of power

The man pursues fame and glory in the full light of his own arrogance, still fantasizing about control.

_Describes the man's egocentric quest for power._

> They walk together in the golden vast Of vision-haunted, soul-alluring sands. Beholding the illusions of the past Among the ruins of deserted lands

They stroll side by side through a beautiful but deceptive desert landscape, gazing at the false memories of what once was among abandoned places.

_The couple's shared but disconnected journey through a landscape of illusion._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-road-of-make-believe
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_2_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters