World Dream Bank: The Vision (Anacreon)

World Dream Bank home - add a dream - newest - art gallery - sampler - dreams by title, subject, author, date, places, names

The Vision
(Anacreon)

dreamed 1648 by Robert Herrick

Me thought I saw (as I did dream in bed)
A crawling vine about Anacreon's head:
Flusht was his face; his hairs with oil did shine;
And as he spake, his mouth ran o'er with wine.
Tippled he was; and tippling lispt withal;
And lisping reeled, and reeling like to fall.
A young enchantress close by him did stand
Tapping his plump thighs with a myrtle wand:
She smil'd; he kist; and kissing, cull'd her too;
And being cup-shot, more he could not do.
For which (me thought) in pretty anger she
Snatcht off his crown, and gave the wreath to me:
Since when (me thinks) my brains about do swim,
And I am wild and wanton like to him.

Anacreon and groupie. Painter unidentified; c.1890. Click to enlarge.

Anacreon: Ancient Greek poet who praised wine and sex
cull: pet, fondle, masturbate
cup-shot: alcoholic impotence
This sounds like a simple erotic dream, but it's not. It's quite political! For it was written in the most repressive time in English history, that of Cromwell's Puritan revolution. In "The Vision" Herrick stands up defiantly for dreams, sex, wine, art, drama, and song--all that the Roundheads censored, smashed and burned. Herrick declares himself of the Devil's party, and also hints the old rowdy Elizabethan spirit was getting impotent (the old wine needs new bottles?) and points out the "Devil's party" predates Christianity by centuries--is not in fact devilish at all, but Dionysian--sacred too.
Not bad for one sonnet--or dream. In a time when dreams were crimes.

LISTS AND LINKS: booze & drugs - sex - weird dream humor - heritage & inheritance - mentors! - politics? - dream poetry - paintings

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites