Sylvia Plath

The Dream

‘Last night,’ he said, ‘I slept well except for two uncanny dreams that came before the change of weather when I rose and opened all the shutters to let warm wind feather with wet plumage through my rooms. ‘In the first dream I was driving down the dark in a black hearse with many men until I crashed a light, and right away a raving woman followed us and rushed to halt our car in headlong course. ‘Crying, she came to the island where we stopped, and with a curse demanded that I pay a fine for being such a rude assailant and damaging the whole unseen lighting plant of the universe. ‘Behind me then I heard a voice warning me to hold her hand and kiss her on the mouth for she loved me and a brave embrace would avoid all penalty. “I know, I know,” I told my friend. ‘But yet I waited to be fined and took the woman's bright subpoena (while she washed the way with tears), then drove to you upon the wind. . . . I do not tell you the nightmare which occurred to me in China. ’