Thomas Lovell Beddoes

"If there were dreams to sell, What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life’s fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy?A cottage lone and still, With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die. Such pearl from Life’s fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This would best heal my ill, This would I buy."

"A cypress-bough, and a rose-wreath sweet, A wedding-robe, and a winding-sheet, A bridal bed and a bier. Thine be the kisses, maid, And smiling Love’s alarms; And thou, pale youth, be laid In the grave’s cold arms. Each in his own charms, Death and Hymen both are here; So up with scythe and torch, And to the old church porch, While all the bells ring clear: And rosy, rosy the bed shall bloom, And earthy, earthy heap up the tomb."

"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!"

"The swallow leaves her nest, The soul my weary breast; But therefore let the rain On my grave Fall pure; for why complain? Since both will come again O’er the wave.The wind dead leaves and snow Doth hurry to and fro; And, once, a day shall break O’er the wave, When a storm of ghosts shall shake The dead, until they wake In the grave."

"How many times do I love thee, dear? Tell me how many thoughts there be In the atmosphere Of a new-fall’n year, Whose white and sable hours appear The latest flake of Eternity: So many times do I love thee, dear.How many times do I love again? Tell me how many beads there are In a silver chain Of evening rain, Unravell’d from the tumbling main, And threading the eye of a yellow star: So many times do I love again."

"A ghost, that loved a lady fair, Ever in the starry air Of midnight at her pillow stood; And, with a sweetness skies above The luring words of human love, Her soul the phantom wooed. Sweet and sweet is their poisoned note, The little snakes of silver throat, In mossy skulls that nest and lie, Ever singing, “Die, oh! die.”Young soul put off your flesh, and come With me into the quiet tomb, Our bed is lovely, dark and sweet; The earth will swing us, as she goes, Beneath our coverlid of snows, And the warm leaden sheet. Dear and dear is their poisoned note, The little snakes of silver throat, In mossy skulls that nest and lie, Ever singing, “Die, oh! die.”"

"A lake Is a river curled and asleep like a snake."

"If thou wilt ease thine heart Of love and all its smart, Then sleep, dear, sleep; And not a sorrow Hang any tear on your eyelashes; Lie still and deep, Sad soul, until the sea-wave washes The rim o’ the sun to-morrow, In eastern sky.But wilt thou cure thine heart Of love and all its smart, Then die, dear, die; ’Tis deeper, sweeter, Than on a rose-bank to lie dreaming With folded eye; And there alone, amid the beaming Of Love’s stars, thou’lt meet her In eastern sky."

"Why, Rome was naked once, a bastard smudge, Tumbled on straw, the denfellow of whelps, Fattened on roots, and, when a-thirst for milk, He crept beneath and drank the swagging udder Of Tyber’s brave she-wolf; and Heaven’s Judea Was folded in a pannier."

"By female voicesWe have bathed, where none have seen us, In the lake and in the fountain, Underneath the charmèd statue Of the timid, bending Venus, When the water-nymphs were counting In the waves the stars of night, And those maidens started at you, Your limbs shone through so soft and bright. But no secrets dare we tell, For thy slaves unlace thee, And he, who shall embrace thee, Waits to try thy beauty’s spell.By male voicesWe have crowned thee queen of women, Since love’s love, the rose, hath kept her Court within thy lips and blushes, And thine eye, in beauty swimming, Kissing, we rendered up the sceptre, At whose touch the startled soul Like an ocean bounds and gushes, And spirits bend at thy controul. But no secrets dare we tell, For thy slaves unlace thee, And he, who shall embrace thee, Is at hand, and so farewell."

"Is it not sweet to die? for, what is death, But sighing that we ne’er may sigh again, Getting a length beyond our tedious selves; But trampling the last tear from poisonous sorrow, Spilling our woes, crushing our frozen hopes, And passing like an incense out of man? Then, if the body felt, what were its sense, Turning to daisies gently in the grave, If not the soul’s most delicate delight When it does filtrate, through the pores of thought, In love and the enamelled flowers of song?"

"I’ll take that fainting rose Out of his breast; perhaps some sigh of his Lives in the gyre of its kiss-coloured leaves. O pretty rose, hast thou thy flowery passions? Then put thyself into a scented rage, And breathe on me some poisonous revenge. For it was I, thou languid, silken blush, Who orphaned thy green family of thee, In their closed infancy: therefore receive My life, and spread it on thy shrunken petals, And give to me thy pink, reclining death."