University of Virginia Library

DREAM!

Yes, yours be pleasant dreaming;
My little ones, while here,
May fancies to your seeming
As sweet as facts appear;
Not only dreams of fairy
And elf-land yours should be,
Like those vouchsafed to Mary,
But those that May would see.
Sweet visions without number
Not only I'd have come,
Such as delight your slumber
When daylight's dreams are dumb,

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That, even though free from terror
And fearful forms of night,
With unshaped thought and error
Our sealed-up eyes delight.
No, but the fairest fancies
That through the sunshine sing,
And to all life's mischances
A balm and comfort bring;
Dreams dear to babbling baby
And girl alike and boy,
And youth and age when maybe
Life's older cares annoy.
Yes, dreams that bless all ages,
I wave my wand!—descend,
Ye hopes of all life's stages
Until its solemn end.
Dreams that with pictured story
Make small ones hush their breath,
Dreams that can light to glory
The gathering glooms of death.
O Norman, tiny treasure,
Last blessing lent from Heaven,
Dreams but of baby pleasure
To those small eyes be given.
Dreams but of blessëd blisses
For ever meet your sight,
Of mother's looks and kisses,
Of mother's rapt delight.
Sweet fancy do your duty!
In Mary's dreams disclose
Dolls of unearthly beauty
With cheeks that dim the rose;
To dress—to nurse—to chide them,
Wax angels to her send,
If she have cares, to hide them
And all her griefs to end.

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To Willie, breeched and coated,
That restlessest of boys,
Give boats that may be floated,
All supermortal toys;
Such tarts as have no being,
School-prizes, Christmas times,
Pictures no eyes are seeing,
And ceaseless pantomimes.
To Harold, endless cricket
Where he is always in,
Where no ball floors his wicket,
Dread tales and lots of tin;
Scenes in the Circus, jumpings
By goddesses in gauze,
Schools where he gets no thumpings,
And countless tops and taws.
And Kate, my darling, rising
Some one year in your teens,
Hope dream for you, disguising
The future's chequered scenes!
Dream on of friends and lovers
Tender and kind and true
As each small one that hovers
At parties now by you.
Dream, May, O almost woman,
O to our hearts how dear!
Of all bliss that is human
That God can give you here!
Dream that the love around you,
Dream that the hearts of home,
Its praise and prayers surround you,
Whatever, dear, may come!
May book-land sights be lending
That suits the eyes of each
With new delights unending
That love and goodness teach,

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From tales that fill small fancies
With pity, awe, and mirth,
To songs whose joy entrances
The older brains of earth.
From age to age life ranges;
As year on year is told,
May you, through all its changes,
The dreams you'd dream, behold.
Fame—wealth—each sighed-for blessing,
Love—every good beside,
Be each, in dreams, possessing,
If they're to life denied.
Yet through your mortal dreaming
Be there celestial light
Of radiant glory streaming
Upon you, day and night;
Visions of hours immortal,
Gleams from a world above,
Illuming death, its portal,
With God's eternal love.
And O may He be willing,
Who all sweet dreams ensures,
The good your fancy's filling
May still, in fact, be yours;
While such fair worlds of dreaming
Kind God allots to you,
Enjoy their good in seeming,
And wake to find it—true.