The Day-Dream - Part IX - Epilogue
The Day-Dream - Part IX - Epilogue - meaning Summary
Playful Confession to Flora
The speaker addresses Lady Flora, offering a song and inviting her to decide whether it flatters her. He admits a knowing foolishness in composing something meant both to please and to play, comparing his effort to impossible birds and courtly pageants. The poem balances sincere feeling and teasing artifice, asking that the work be accepted as equal parts earnestness and sport devoted to its addressee.
Read Complete AnalysesSo, Lady Flora, take my lay, And, if you find a meaning there, O whisper to your glass, and say, “What wonder, if he thinks me fair?” What wonder I was all unwise, To shape the song for your delight Like long-tail’d birds of Paradise, That float thro’ Heaven, and cannot light? Or old-world trains, upheld at court By Cupid-boys of blooming hue— But take it—earnest wed with sport, And either sacred unto you.
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