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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


NOCTURNE IN ANJOU by RICHARD HOVEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I DREAMED OF SAPPHO ON A SUMMER NIGHT
Last Line: "AS ONE WHO DREAMS, ""I HAVE FORGOTTEN THEM."
Subject(s): DREAMS; SAPPHO (610-580 B.C.); NIGHTMARES;

I DREAMED of Sappho on a summer night.
Her nightingales were singing in the trees
Beside the castled river; and the wind
Fell like a woman's fingers on my cheek.
And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change;
The night went on with me into my dream.
This only I remember, that I cried:
"O Sappho! ere I leave this paradise,
Sing me one song of those lost books of yours
For which we poets still go sorrowing;
That when I meet my fellows on the earth
I may rejoice them more than many pearls;"
And she, the sweetly smiling, answered me,
As one who dreams, "I have forgotten them."



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