An Exploration of Thomas Lovell Beddoes’ “Dream-Pedlary”
Table of Contents
Thomas Lovell Beddoes’ “Dream-Pedlary” is a complex and introspective poem that delves into themes of mortality, desire, and the nature of reality.The poem’s initial invitation – “If there were dreams to sell / What would you buy?” – establishes a captivating intimacy, drawing the reader into the speaker’s internal world. This exploration shifts inward as the poem progresses,culminating in a sense of separation between the speaker and the addressed “you.”
Form and Structure
The poem’s structure is distinctive. The first stanza consists of ten lines, featuring a repetition of the opening two lines and a triplet rhyme scheme (“sell / tell / bell”). This triplet pattern is abandoned in the subsequent nine-line stanzas. However, repetition remains a key element, notably through the recurring “crown / down” rhyme and the overarching question-and-answer structure.
Argument and the Gothic Creativity
The poem moves from a hypothetical marketplace of dreams to a more urgent contemplation of “ghosts to raise.” This concern reflects Beddoes’ broader interests,shaped by his medical training and interest with the gothic. His work, particularly death’s Jest Book, explores post-death spiritual survival, stemming from his serious investigation into mortality through medicine. Despite finding no empirical evidence for such survival, Beddoes continued to poetically grapple with the question of life after death.
The Search for a Prized Dream
Beddoes’ search for “a dream to prize” centers on identifying which ghost he would resurrect. The phrase “buried well” suggests a desire for psychological depth in the chosen spirit. The poem also entertains the possibility that “life is a dream,” implying that death might be a transition to another reality.
The “loved long-lost boy” of stanza four is widely believed to be Benjamin Bernhard Reich,a Russian medical student with whom Beddoes lived during his studies in Göttingen. Recent scholarship suggests that Beddoes’ complex sense of alienation was deeply connected to his homosexuality, a notable aspect of his creative and political rebellion and his nomadic lifestyle. The poem’s earlier dream of a settled home,”that would best heal my ill,” gains added poignancy in light of this context.
Romanticism and Self-Parody
“Dream-Pedlary” positions Beddoes as a late-Romantic poet, echoing the style of figures like Percy Bysshe Shelley as demonstrated in his tribute to Shelley. However, the poem also exhibits a self-parodic and “camp” sensibility, questioning Romantic tropes and imbuing delicate metaphors with a tangible, even “fleshly,” weight. The dream initially offered for “a light sigh” is revisited in the fifth stanza, where the “rose-leaf” and “Life’s fresh crown” reappear, but with altered importance. The rose-leaf’s fall is less gentle, and the certainty of death outweighs the promise of the “crown,” leading to a paradoxical and perhaps jesting conclusion: “Thus are the ghosts to woo; / Thus are all dreams made true, / Ever to last!”
The text is copied from Edmund Gosse’s 1890 edition of the Poems, available here.