The Dream, and Other Poems

The Dream, and Other Poems[1] by Mrs. George Lenox-Conyngham is a poetry collection published in 1833 in London by Edward Moxon, with 166 pages, containing 24 poems; four of which were written by Lenox-Conyngham's mother. The collection is also dedicated to her father, Robert Holmes, Esq. There are also three Italian Sonnets composed by Lenox-Conyngham, which do not have English translations, and two more Italian sonnets which have been written by other poets, Vincenzo da Filicaja (1642-1707) and De Coureil (1760-1822) translated by Lenox-Conyngham. She is a poet of many languages, as not only does she engage with Italian, she has translated 5 poems of F. Von Matthisson (1761-1831) from German into English.

There are 16 poems about death; 3 about war; 2 about humanity and exile; 1 on friendship; 1 on travel, and; 1 on femininity. 21 of these poems include allusions to Christianity.

The first poem, which also takes the title, ‘The Dream’, adopts the epic form, being 64 pages long, and is heavily involved with themes of death, romance, regret, grief, and the natural world. The protagonist, a nameless speaker described as the Hermit narrates his past romance through flashbacks to his long-lost friend. The Hermit speaker describes the woman who he fell in love with in the past, and how her father did not approve of the Hermit as an appropriate suitor. The Hermit and lover escaped from her father's ownership and proceeded to marry, with the help of a Christian priest. Afterwards, the poem takes on themes found in Arthurian legends, as the lovers on horseback are chased by unknown men in armour. The woman is in a deep, spell-like slumber. She immediately wakes from her sleep once the Hermit has slayed her father, breaking this spell. She does not recognise the corpse as that of her father's, so they continue on horseback. This murder riddles the Hermit speaker with grief and guilt; changing his appearance and destroying their romantic relationship. His lover realises that something is wrong, forcing the Hermit to confess that he has killed her father. This knowledge eventually leads to his lover's death, which explains the Hermit's current isolation. In the last stanza, he tells his friend that he wants the world to think he is dead, as both the Hermit and God, as well as the listening friend and audience, knows the full extent of his crimes. Religion is a very important theme here; it is the fear of Hell and knowing that the Hermit has wronged his Christian God that catalyses the tragic aspect of the poem, namely the Hermit's deterioration of sanity, the death of his lover and his penultimate isolation. Lenox-Conyngham, in this poem, draws on similar themes found in Shakespeare's works, such as the tragic romance in Romeo and Juliet, and includes tempest imagery similar to that in both The Tempest and King Lear.

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