"Lord Ullin's Daughter" by Thomas Campbell, is a poem that tells the tragic story of young lovers trying to escape the woman's father, Lord Ullin. His daughter is fleeing with her lover, a chieftain of Ulva. In lines four and five of the poem, the boatman asks the chieftain, "Now who be ye would cross Lochgyle/This dark and stormy water?" According to Scotland Magazine (see the link below), Loch Gyle, also called Loch na Keal, is a sea loch that divides Gribun on Mull from Ulva. Mull is the second largest island that makes up the Inner Hebrides off Scotland's west coast, and Ulva is also an island in the Inner Hebrides that is separated from Mull by a thin strait. Though this strait can be crossed by a ferry today, it was a storm-tossed sea in the poem, and the couple sadly perished while crossing it.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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