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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DREAM-PEDLARY, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: If there were dreams to sell Last Line: Ever to last! Variant Title(s): Dreams To Sell Subject(s): Dreams; Nightmares | |||
IF there were dreams to sell, What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy? A cottage lone and still, With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This would best heal my ill, This would I buy. But there were dreams to sell Ill didst thou buy; Life is a dream, they tell, Waking, to die. Dreaming a dream to prize, In wishing ghosts to rise; And, if I had the spell To call the buried well, Which one would I? If there are ghosts to raise, What shall I call,. Out of hell's murky haze, Heaven's blue pall? Raise my loved long-lost boy To lead me to his joy. -- There are no ghosts to raise; Out of death lead no ways; Vain is the call. Know'st thou not ghosts to sue? No love thou hast. Else lie, as I will do. And breathe thy last. So out of Life's fresh crown Fall like a rose-leaf down. Thus are the ghosts to woo; Thus are all dreams made true, Ever to last! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 14 by CONRAD AIKEN VARIATIONS: 18 by CONRAD AIKEN LIVE IT THROUGH by DAVID IGNATOW A DREAM OF GAMES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL APOLOGY FOR BAD DREAMS by ROBINSON JEFFERS GIVE YOUR WISH LIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS BALLAD OF HUMAN LIFE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: DIRGE FOR WOLFRAM by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES DEATH'S JEST-BOOK: SAILORS' [OR MARINERS'] SONG by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |
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