> _done?_
\ _yet so much hath_ /

POEMS OF

JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1816.

THE DREAM.

INTRODUCTION TO _THE DREAM_

_The Dream_, which was written at Diodati in July, 1816 (probably
towards the end of the month; see letters to Murray and Rogers, dated
July 22 and July 29), is a retrospect and an apology. It consists of an
opening stanza, or section, on the psychology of dreams, followed by
some episodes or dissolving views, which purport to be the successive
stages of a dream. Stanzas ii. and iii. are descriptive of Annesley Park
and Hall, and detail two incidents of Byron's boyish passion for his
neighbour and distant cousin, Mary Anne Chaworth. The first scene takes
place on the top of "Diadem Hill," the "cape" or rounded spur of the
long ridge of Howatt Hill, which lies about half a mile to the
south-east of the hall. The time is the late summer or early autumn of
1803. The "Sun of Love" has not yet declined, and the "one beloved face"
is still shining on him; but he is beginning to realize that "her sighs
are not for him," that she is out of his reach. The second scene, which
belongs to the following year, 1804, is laid in the "antique oratory"
(not, as Moore explains, another name for the hall, but "a small room
built over the porch, or principal entrance of the hall, and looking
into the courtyard"), and depicts the final parting. His doom has been
pronounced, and his first impulse is to pen some passionate reproach,
but his heart fails him at the sight of the "Lady of his Love," serene
and smiling, and he bids her farewell with smiles on his lips, but grief
unutterable in his heart.

Stanza iv. recalls an incident of his Eastern travels--a halt at noonday
by a fountain on the route from Smyrna to Ephesus (March 14, 1810), "the
heads of camels were seen peeping above the tall reeds" (see _Travels in
Albania_, 1858, ii. 59.).

The next episode (stanza v.) depicts an imaginary scene, suggested,
perhaps, by some rumour or more definite assurance, and often present to
his "inward eye"--the "one beloved," the mother of a happy family, but
herself a forsaken and unhappy wife.

He passes on (stanza vi.) to his marriage in 1815, his bride "gentle"
and "fair," but _not_ the "one beloved,"--to the wedding day, when he
stood before an altar, "like one forlorn," confused by t