Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LAST MAN: A DREAM, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAST MAN: A DREAM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Last night I looked into a dream; 'twas drawn
Last Line: Was of the northern hurricane _____
Subject(s): Cupid; Death; Dreams; Sleep; Eros; Dead, The; Nightmares


LAST night I looked into a dream; 'twas drawn
On the black midnight of a velvet sleep,
And set in woeful thoughts; and there I saw
A thin, pale Cupid, with bare, ragged wings
Like skeletons of leaves, in autumn left,
That sift the frosty air. One hand was shut,
And in its little hold of ivory
Fastened a May-morn zephyr, frozen straight,
Made deadly with a hornet's rugged sting,
Gilt with the influence of an adverse star.
Such was his weapon, and he traced with it,
Upon the waters of my thoughts, these words:
'I am the death of flowers, and nightingales,
And small-lipped babes, that give their souls to summer
To make a perfumed day with: I shall come,
A death no larger than a sigh to thee,
Upon a sunset hour.'—And so he passed
Into the place where faded rainbows are,
Dying along the distance of my mind;
As down the sea Europa's hair-pearls fell
When, through the Cretan waves, the curly bull
Dashed, tugging at a stormy plough, whose share
Was of the northern hurricane _____





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