Although the poem raises a particular issue, the separation of lovers from one another, this classic Medieval romance can be seen as a mythic response to the issue of love lost, the pain and agony of existence, and even the mythic pairs of opposites. By craving the union of those opposites, the protagonist makes himself eligible to a visit from the Greek deity, Morpheus, who oversees the dreams of human beings. In this instance, the dream coincides with their arrival at the Fountain of Love, where the lover is able to talk to his beloved from afar, through the unconscious.
The dream represents the answer to the question that drove them to this fountain. Although in the poem, there is a literal fountain outside of them, in the external reality of their waking world, the answer comes not from that depth but from another depth, the depth from which dreams come in the human mind. The poem points to the union of opposites that can come from mystical revelation. The trouble and grief of the heartbroken lover is suddenly fixed when the vision of his beloved consoles him from the recesses of his own soul.
In other words, in the waking world, he is separate from his beloved, but in his soul, they are already unified. The blessing of Morpheus is that the dream shows the lover that his agony is not for nothing; it leads him to a deep well of love within his own self. This love is inherently self-love, because the soul is the subject and object of it, but because of his union with his would-be wife within his own soul, he realizes that their souls are already shared between them. He has solved the despair of his agony; the truth that is a deep well for him is that she and he are already one forever and ever, despite what the circumstances might show.
