‘I have had a dream tonight’

These lines are written in ink in Nbk 10 f. 1^v. Their position near the beginning of the forward sequence of writing in a nbk in use from spring 1819 to spring 1820 suggests that they were composed in spring or summer 1819. They have no apparent connection with the immediately surrounding entries, and may simply be the start of S.’s attempt to record a disturbing dream in verse. Forman speculated (Huntington Nbks ii 9) that the couplet was a revision of the fragment on f. 9^r of the same nbk: ‘I awakened from a dream/That…’. This is possible, though ‘I awakened’ may be unrelated to the present couplet; or it may possibly be a draft opening for MA (no. 231), among other drafts for which it occurs. Mary transcribed the couplet into Mary Copybk 1 (76) but did not publish it. The pleonasm in the second line suggests that S. was aiming at some emphatic effect.