Bad Dreams: III Poem by Robert Browning
Bad Dreams: III
THIS was my dream: I saw a Forest
Old as the earth, no track nor trace
Of unmade man. Thou, Soul, explorest-
Though in a trembling rapture- space
Immeasurable! Shrubs, turned trees,
Trees that touch heaven, support its frieze
Studded with sun and moon and star:
While- oh, the enormous growths that bar
Mine eye from penetrating past
Their tangled twine where lurks- nay, lives
Royally lone, some brute-type cast
I' the rough, time cancels, man forgives.
On, Soul! I saw a lucid City
Of architectural device
Every way perfect. Pause for pity,
Lightning! nor leave a cicatrice
On those bright marbles, dome and spire,
Structures palatial,- streets which mire
Dares not defile, paved all too fine
For human footstep's smirch, not thine-
Proud solitary traverser,
My Soul, of silent lengths of way-
With what ecstatic dread, aver,
Lest life start sanctioned by the stay!
Ah, but the last sight was the hideous!
A City, yes,- a Forest, true,-
But each devouring each. Perfidious
Snake-plants had strangled what I knew
Was a pavilion once: each oak
Held on his horns some spoil he broke
By surreptitiously beneath
Upthrusting: pavements, as with teeth,
Griped huge weed widening crack and split
In squares and circles stone-work erst.
Oh, Nature- good! Oh, Art- no whit
Less worthy! Both in one- accurst!
Awesome imagery with stunning fantasy. Thanks for sharing it here.
Who are we liittle poets to write about poets like Robert Browning. tony
nature and Art in combination coming in a dream is a real expression of felt one indeed!
I know i'm using improper grammer, punctuation, and possibly spelling but... I honestly didn't know Robert Browning before but now I would love to have one of his books. cant afford it.
One of the master of whom I dared speak ini my poem, poetry am I right or am I wrong. What line what metre what urgency for little poets like us too learn
Browning's poem seems to be about the perennial conflict between nature and civilisation. In Freudian terms, natural impulses repressed by society's demands exact revenge but are in turn choked by, ' pavements, as with teeth, /Griped huge weed widening crack and split...' A very surreal, and perplexing, poem indeed!
Griped huge weed widening crack and split In squares and circles stone-work erst. Oh, Nature- good! Oh, Art- no whit Less worthy! Both in one- accurst! .. A great poem of Browning..... love it. tony
the last sight was the hideous! A City, yes, - a Forest, true, - But each devouring each./// exactly written/ one devours others
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/23/2024 1:46:30 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Studded with sun and moon and star... thanks for posting....