A Summer’s Dream Poem by Elizabeth Bishop

A Summer’s Dream

Rating: 2.6


To the sagging wharf
few ships could come.
The population numbered
two giants, an idiot, a dwarf,

a gentle storekeeper
asleep behind his counter,
and our kind landlady—
the dwarf was her dressmaker.

The idiot could be beguiled
by picking blackberries,
but then threw them away.
The shrunken seamstress smiled.

By the sea, lying
blue as a mackerel,
our boarding house was streaked
as though it had been crying.

Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

The giant with the stammer
was the landlady’s son,
grumbling on the stairs
over an old grammar.

He was morose,
but she was cheerful.
The bedroom was cold,
the feather bed close.

We were awakened in the dark by
the somnambulist brook
nearing the sea,
still dreaming audibly.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Susan Williams 18 December 2015

She never fails to ignite the imagination- -We were awakened in the dark by the somnambulist brook nearing the sea, still dreaming audibly.

26 1 Reply
* Sunprincess * 09 November 2013

a descriptive poem.. so as dreams go

6 19 Reply
Liliana ~el 09 September 2013

beautiful, really and truly :)

5 19 Reply
Primrose Tee 05 May 2014

wonderful, beautiful, lovely..

6 4 Reply
Fabrizio Frosini 11 July 2015

a vivid description.. beautiful write..

9 1 Reply
Geeta Radhakrishna Menon 08 February 2017

A gentle poem still dreaming audibly.

1 1 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 08 February 2017

The gaint! ! Still dreaming. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

1 2 Reply
Tom Allport 08 February 2017

a very interesting write about the events on a summer's night.

2 1 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 08 February 2017

Interesting poem.....

2 2 Reply
Paul Brookes 08 February 2017

Beautiful images so well written 10+++

2 1 Reply
Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop

Worcester, Massachusetts
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