It seems like the speaker might be just a little lonely based on the way he talks about his horse. He attributes a great deal of understanding to the horse, assuming that the horse is thinking that it is odd for them to be making an unscheduled stop in the woods, nowhere near a farmhouse, and totally alone in the night. Further, when the horse shakes its head, the speaker assumes that the horse is purposely jingling his harness bells in order to question him about the reason for the stop and if he has made some error. Other than the horse, the speaker is alone, and he says that he still has "miles to go" before he can rest. This sounds like a bit of a lonely road he travels, and so his descriptions of the horse make it seem as though he thinks of the horse almost as another person in order to be less lonely.
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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