A Dream of Fair Women
A Dream of Fair Women is a poem by Alfred Tennyson. It was written and published in 1833 as "A Legend of Fair Women", but was heavily revised for republication under its present tile in 1842.[1]
The opening lines of the poem are:
As when a man, that sails in a balloon,
Downlooking sees the solid shining ground.
Stream from beneath him in the broad blue noon,
Tilth, hamlet, mead and mound …
The poem was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women (1384). Both works feature Cleopatra and deal with the misfortunes of illustrious women.[2]
Samuel Beckett's 1932 Dream of Fair to Middling Women parodies Tennyson's title and alludes to his and Chaucer's poems.
A 1920 American short film with this title directed by Wilfrid North credits Tennyson.[citation needed] The film features four winners of the Motion Picture Classic magazine's 1919 "Fame and Fortune" contest, which included Virginia Brown Faire.
References
External links
- "A Dream of Fair Women". The Literature Network. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
- v
- t
- e
- Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830)
- "The Deserted House"
- "The Kraken"
- "The Lady of Shalott"
- "The Lotos-Eaters"
- "Mariana"
- "Oenone"
- "Mariana in the South"
- The Miller's Daughter
- "Claribel"
- "The Ballad of Oriana"
- "Break, Break, Break"
- "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
- "The Day-Dream"
- "A Dream of Fair Women"
- "Godiva"
- "St. Agnes"
- Lady Clare
- Idylls of the King
- "In Memoriam A.H.H."
- "Lady Clara Vere de Vere"
- "Locksley Hall"
- "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal"
- Poems (1842)
- "The Palace of Art"
- The Princess
- "Sir Galahad"
- "St. Simeon Stylites"
- "Sweet and Low"
- "Tears, Idle Tears"
- "The Two Voices"
- "Ulysses"
- "Crossing the Bar"
- "The Eagle"
- Enoch Arden
- "Flower in the Crannied Wall"
- "The Higher Pantheism"
- Maud
- "Ring Out, Wild Bells"
- "Tithonus"
- The Foresters (play)
- The Window (song cycle)
- Emily Tennyson (wife)
- Hallam Tennyson (son)
- Lionel Tennyson (grandson)
- Charles Tennyson (grandson)
- Emilia Tennyson (sister)
- Charles Tennyson Turner (brother)
- Frederick Tennyson (brother)
- Arthur Hallam (friend)