A Dream of Fair Women is a poem by Alfred Tennyson. It was written and published in 1833 as "A Legend of Fair Women", but was heavily revised for republication under its present tile in 1842. [1]
The opening lines of the poem are:
As when a man, that sails in a balloon,
Downlooking sees the solid shining ground.
Stream from beneath him in the broad blue noon,
Tilth, hamlet, mead and mound …
The poem was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women (1384). Both works feature Cleopatra and deal with the misfortunes of illustrious women.[2]
Samuel Beckett's 1932 Dream of Fair to Middling Women parodies Tennyson's title and alludes to his and Chaucer's poems.
A 1920 American short film with this title directed by Wilfrid North credits Tennyson.[3] The film features four winners of the Motion Picture Classic magazine's 1919 "Fame and Fortune" contest, which included Virginia Brown Faire.
