In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," the horse in the poem thinks it's strange that the narrator is stopping in an unusual place to look at the snowfall. The horse is impatient to get on, but the narrator lingers where he can watch the snow fall in the woods. This episode relates to the way in which human beings often live without really looking around. The owner of the farmhouse is not there to see the lovely woods during the snowfall, and the horse, unaccustomed to stopping, is eager to get moving. Similarly, people like to remain on their usual paths and do not often take time or stop their routines to smell the figurative roses. As a result, people often miss out on seeing beautiful and inspiring sights or experiencing something new and transcendent.
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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