Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Birthdate: June 30, 1803
Birthplace: Clifton, Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Date of Death: January 26, 1849
Occupation: Poet
Profile: Best known for
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy.
Website: http://www.phantomwooer.org/
Number of Quotes: 18
A cypress-bough, and a rose-wreath sweet,
A wedding-robe, and a winding-sheet,
A bridal bed and a bier.
The Phantom-Wooer (1842)
Reflects Beddoes' fascination with the interplay of love and death.
Do you know what Death is? ... He is the Season,
And Death's cold winds shall blow the roses down.
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy (Act V, Scene IV)
A meditation on mortality and inevitability.
Every apartment devoted to the circulation of the glass, may be regarded as a temple set apart for the performance of human sacrifices.
How many times do I love, again?
Tell me how many beads there are
In a silver chain
Of evening rain
Unravelled from the trembling main
And threading the eye of a yellow star:
So many times do I love again.
Song from Torrismond
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright.
I Arise From Dreams of Thee
A rare lyrical moment in his otherwise dark oeuvre.
I have a bit of fiat in my soul,
And can myself create my little world.
If there were dreams to sell,
Merry and sad to tell,
And the crier rung his bell,
What would you buy?
Opening lines of Dream-Pedlary (published posthumously).
One of his most famous verses, exploring longing and imagination.
If thou wilt ease thine heart
Of love and all its smart,
Then sleep, dear, sleep.
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy (Act III, Scene III)
A line admired for its rhythmic force and cosmic imagery.
Like mighty eagle soaring light
O'er antelopes on Alpine height.
The anchor heaves, the ship swings free,
The sails swell full. To sea, to sea!
Strew not earth's empty floor with such poor madhouse-flowers as thoughts like these.
The Phantom-Wooer
Critiques futile human preoccupations with existential dread.
Tell me how many beads there are
In a silver chain
Of evening rain,
Unravelled from the tumbling main,
And threading the eye of a yellow star: -
So many times do I love again.
The look of the world's a lie, a face made up
O'er graves and fiery depths, and nothing's true
But what is horrible.
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy
The mighty thought of an old world
Fan, like a dragon’s wing unfurled,
The surface of my yearnings deep.
From Lines Written in Switzerland (1825).
Combines grandeur with introspection.
There is some secret stirring in the world,
A thought that seeks impatiently its word.
We are the fools of time and terror:
Days steal on us and steal from us; yet we live,
Loathing our life, and dreading still to die.
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy (Act III, Scene iii)
A nihilistic reflection on human existence.
What’s the use
Of being a ghost if one can't frighten people?
Death's Jest-Book; or, The Fool's Tragedy (Act IV, Scene iv)
Darkly humorous, typical of Beddoes' blending of horror and wit.
When soft winds and sunny skies
With the green earth harmonize...
The Swallow Leaves Her Nest
Contrasts nature's beauty with human melancholy.
Last on Earth
