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


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAST MAN: DREAM OF DYING, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shivering in fever, weak, and parched to sand
Last Line: Are these thy dreams!
Variant Title(s): The Last Man; Fragment
Subject(s): Death; Dreams; Sleep; Dead, The; Nightmares


Shivering in fever, weak, and parched to sand,
My ears, those entrances of word-dressed thoughts,
My pictured eyes, and my assuring touch,
Fell from me, and my body turned me forth
From its beloved abode: then I was dead;
And in my grave beside my corpse I sat,
In vain attempting to return: meantime
There came the untimely spectres of two babes,
And played in my abandoned body's ruins;
They went away; and, one by one, by snakes
My limbs were swallowed; and, at last, I sat
With only one, blue-eyed, curled round my ribs,
Eating the last remainder of my heart,
And hissing to himself. O sleep, thou fiend!
Thou blackness of the night! how sad and frightful
Are these thy dreams!





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