The tone of "I taste a liquor never brewed" is that of mystical ecstasy. The narrator compares the joy of a summer's day to the joy of being drunk. In the second stanza, she calls herself "an inebriate of the air," meaning she has become drunk from drinking in air. The other words in this stanza, including "debauchee" and "reeling," also convey the sense of utter enjoyment that the narrator experiences in nature. The tone is also mystical because the narrator is so exhilarated by nature that she acquires the supernatural ability to drink more than the bees and butterflies. In addition, in the final stanza, the narrator says that she will continue to drink from the sun even as the angels and saints rush to the windows to see her, adding to the mystical tone of the poem.
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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