Poem by John Keats

Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Before he went to live with owls and bats,
Nebuchadnezzar had an ugly dream,
Worse than a housewife’s, when she thinks her cream
Made a naumachia for mice and rats:
So scared, he sent for that “good kind of cats,”
Young Daniel, who did straightway pluck the beam
From out his eye, and said – “I do not deem
Your sceptre worth a straw, your cushions old door mats.”
A horrid nightmare, similar somewhat,
Of late has haunted a most valiant crew
Of loggerheads and chapmen; – we are told
That any Daniel, though he be a sot,
Can make their lying lips turn pale of hue,
By drawing out – “Ye are that head of gold!”

1. What the Thrush Said
2. Written in Answer to a Sonnet by J.H. Reynolds
3. To a Lady Seen for a Few Moments at Vauxhall
4. Song (“The stranger lighted from his steed”)
5. Song of Four Faries

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