Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DREAMS by JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: OH! MISERABLE POWER
Last Line: AND WARN THEE WHAT THOU ART, AND WHENCE THY WEALTH HAS COME.
OH! miserable power
To dreams allow'd, to raise the guilty past,
And back awhile the illumined spirit to cast
On its youth's twilight hour;
In mockery guiling it to act again
The revel or the scoff in Satan's frantic train!

Nay, hush thee, angry heart!
An Angel's grief ill fits a penitent;
Welcome the thorn -- it is divinely sent,
And with its wholesome smart
Shall pierce thee in thy virtue's palmy home,
And warn thee what thou art, and whence thy wealth has come.



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