A Dream of Death
A Dream of Death - meaning Summary
Beauty Buried, Memory Carved
The speaker dreams of a woman buried far from home and familiar hands. Local peasants bury her simply, mark her grave with a crude cross, and leave her under indifferent stars. The narrator carves a brief epitaph contrasting her beauty with a "first love," registering both loss and neglect. The poem compresses mourning into a quiet, solitary act of memory amid physical and emotional isolation.
Read Complete AnalysesI dreamed that one had died in a strange place Near no accustomed hand, And they had nailed the boards above her face, The peasants of that land, Wondering to lay her in that solitude, And raised above her mound A cross they had made out of two bits of wood, And planted cypress round; And left her to the indifferent stars above Until I carved these words: She was more beautiful than thy first love, But now lies under boards.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.