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DREAMS.
Dreams, loveliest mutabilities of ever-changeful earth!
Beauteous and precious blossoming of Time's cold desert dearth,
Incarnadining life's gray mists with sun-hues of the south,
And brightening life's horizon-rim with the orient fires of youth.
Beauteous and precious blossoming of Time's cold desert dearth,
Incarnadining life's gray mists with sun-hues of the south,
And brightening life's horizon-rim with the orient fires of youth.
Like the fair rainbow, linking earth to the blue exulting sky,
And showering o'er the space around a flood of radiancy!
O, wondrous are ye, and sublime in your phases and your powers,
Wresting from care and feverish woe some few short splendid hours!
And showering o'er the space around a flood of radiancy!
O, wondrous are ye, and sublime in your phases and your powers,
Wresting from care and feverish woe some few short splendid hours!
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From the monarch's brow ye lift the crown! the captive's chains unbind!
Youth unto frozen age ye are, and light unto the blind—
A refuge and a shelter to earth's wanderers, weary-hearted,
And all to the bereaved, since ye restore the long-departed!
Youth unto frozen age ye are, and light unto the blind—
A refuge and a shelter to earth's wanderers, weary-hearted,
And all to the bereaved, since ye restore the long-departed!
To childhood's ken, O! what a world of mystery and of glory!
Surpassing all even childhood meets in the gorgeous realms of story!
All dazzling dyes, all wildering light, all wonder, and all change!
Where the thoughts, like birds of paradise, through an endless sunshine range!
Surpassing all even childhood meets in the gorgeous realms of story!
All dazzling dyes, all wildering light, all wonder, and all change!
Where the thoughts, like birds of paradise, through an endless sunshine range!
What murmurings, and what glimmerings, and what trembling thrills incessant,
Through that soft air run lightly, where Hope plants her opening crescent,—
And Peace, transparent Peace, through its warm luxuriance sheds its brightenings,
Like dewy moonlight-rainbows wreathed with the flash of summer's lightnings!
Through that soft air run lightly, where Hope plants her opening crescent,—
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Like dewy moonlight-rainbows wreathed with the flash of summer's lightnings!
A picture-land, a music-land, sleep's wide realm must be there,
Where no echo-voice of other times doth haunt the silvery air—
No faded tracery of the past doth mantle it with gloom—
No canopying clouds of night, no shadows of the tomb!
Where no echo-voice of other times doth haunt the silvery air—
No faded tracery of the past doth mantle it with gloom—
No canopying clouds of night, no shadows of the tomb!
Yet where the voice of other times hath the arrowy breeze enchained,
Thrilling with searching sweetnesses, that scarce can be sustained—
Despite that voice, the trace, the cloud, the shadowy gloom despite,
Dreams! ye've flowery wildernesses still, of bloom and golden light!
Thrilling with searching sweetnesses, that scarce can be sustained—
Despite that voice, the trace, the cloud, the shadowy gloom despite,
Dreams! ye've flowery wildernesses still, of bloom and golden light!
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Dreams of the poet's burning mind! O! what must ye not be?
Bright-pinioned travellers, that explore the unveiled immensity;
That bring from many an untracked coast, and many an untouched mine,
The dazzling meed of riches he receives but to resign!
Bright-pinioned travellers, that explore the unveiled immensity;
That bring from many an untracked coast, and many an untouched mine,
The dazzling meed of riches he receives but to resign!
Yet, if his mind one lightning-glimpse of all ye brought retain,
It shall bring glory without end to his mighty sweeping strain!
For ye shall crown his conquering thought with all grand and starry themes,
Though alone that lightning-glimpse bequeathed, shall mark your track, winged dreams!
It shall bring glory without end to his mighty sweeping strain!
For ye shall crown his conquering thought with all grand and starry themes,
Though alone that lightning-glimpse bequeathed, shall mark your track, winged dreams!
Yours are the realms of life and death—the realms of time and space!
And the fiery-tressed comet toils behind ye in the race;
The Past heaves, like a billowy sea, when ye hover o'er its gloom—
And, fearful in their beauty, rise the dwellers of the tomb!
And the fiery-tressed comet toils behind ye in the race;
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And, fearful in their beauty, rise the dwellers of the tomb!
And to the painter's fervid glance what marvels ye disclose—
Your very atmosphere burns deep with the crimsonings of the rose!
Sunshine through moonlight quivering gleams! beam upon beam embossed!
In labyrinthine-wreathed meanderings — silvery streams with golden crossed!
Your very atmosphere burns deep with the crimsonings of the rose!
Sunshine through moonlight quivering gleams! beam upon beam embossed!
In labyrinthine-wreathed meanderings — silvery streams with golden crossed!
Perchance ye spread unrecked-of worlds before his raptured vision—
Worlds with o'erpowering beauty crowned! aërial—crystalline—Elysian!
Where the spirit of all loveliness embodied seems to dwell,
As the fire within the umbrageous cloud, or the pearl in the orient shell!
Worlds with o'erpowering beauty crowned! aërial—crystalline—Elysian!
Where the spirit of all loveliness embodied seems to dwell,
As the fire within the umbrageous cloud, or the pearl in the orient shell!
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Or, perchance, the glorious scenes of old for him ye may revive!
And bid the vanished Beautiful—the vanquished Mighty live—
Redeem fallen cities from the dust, that hath their majesty defiled,
And give them pomp they boasted not, ere time their strength despoiled.
And bid the vanished Beautiful—the vanquished Mighty live—
Redeem fallen cities from the dust, that hath their majesty defiled,
And give them pomp they boasted not, ere time their strength despoiled.
Like gorgeous jewel-pyramids—like genii-structures, famed of old—
They arise with spires and column-shafts of burnished sculptured gold!
With vast domes that might o'ercanopy all the unpavillioned seas!
Yet ever varying, cloud-like, to his fancy's varying breeze!
They arise with spires and column-shafts of burnished sculptured gold!
With vast domes that might o'ercanopy all the unpavillioned seas!
Yet ever varying, cloud-like, to his fancy's varying breeze!
Or ye shadow forth triumphantly the conqueror on his car!
Or the kingly leader and his hosts, when marshalled for the war!
The satrap at the banquetting, the mourner at the pyre—
Or the bard—the god-like child of song—with his laurel-cinctured lyre.
Or the kingly leader and his hosts, when marshalled for the war!
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Or the bard—the god-like child of song—with his laurel-cinctured lyre.
Or a shepherd-king of olden times, with his flocks on palmy plains—
A Pythoness beside the shrine, 'midst regal Delphi's pillared fanes!
Or some white-robed martyr-brotherhood, with torch and scourge barefooted led;
Or th' old sacrificial festivals, where the flower-wreathed victims bled!
A Pythoness beside the shrine, 'midst regal Delphi's pillared fanes!
Or some white-robed martyr-brotherhood, with torch and scourge barefooted led;
Or th' old sacrificial festivals, where the flower-wreathed victims bled!
Dreams! ye have still more boundless scope and more transcending powers,
When ye borrow not your colourings from mortality's frail hours!
When ye paint to Faith's adoring eyes the mysteries of the skies—
Although then your pomps are vain, though fused with the sunset's deepest dyes.
When ye borrow not your colourings from mortality's frail hours!
When ye paint to Faith's adoring eyes the mysteries of the skies—
Although then your pomps are vain, though fused with the sunset's deepest dyes.
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Those jewel-pyramids! star-blazoned domes!—those piles and heaps of treasure!
Those genii-structures — heavenwards reared and aimed—without boundary, without measure!
Those gorgeous pageantries! aspiring—through the Elysian heights unveiled—
These must be vain, and soon obscured, though awhile their pomps prevailed.
Those genii-structures — heavenwards reared and aimed—without boundary, without measure!
Those gorgeous pageantries! aspiring—through the Elysian heights unveiled—
These must be vain, and soon obscured, though awhile their pomps prevailed.
Yet, ye still leave glorious traces on the lulled and gladdened soul—
Though to Oblivion's ocean those fantastic splendours roll—
Soft spiritual traces, even like an angel's footsteps there—
And a memory on the verdurous earth, and a token on the air.
Though to Oblivion's ocean those fantastic splendours roll—
Soft spiritual traces, even like an angel's footsteps there—
And a memory on the verdurous earth, and a token on the air.
O'er that spirit that hath thirsted for the fountaindraughts of life!
And battled with meek earnestness through the dark and lengthening strife;
O'er whose thousand thousand thoughts and hopes, one faith hath, crown-like, hovered—
Ye have breathed! and to its passionate gaze worlds after worlds discovered.
And battled with meek earnestness through the dark and lengthening strife;
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Ye have breathed! and to its passionate gaze worlds after worlds discovered.
O'er the spirit that is trembling on the threshold of its doom—
That hears in every chiming breeze a whisper of the tomb;
That still by deep affections bowed—by silvery cords enthralled,
Would shrink back for a while to life, though heavenwards, heavenwards called.
That hears in every chiming breeze a whisper of the tomb;
That still by deep affections bowed—by silvery cords enthralled,
Would shrink back for a while to life, though heavenwards, heavenwards called.
O'er that spirit—sovereign dreams! ye shed a mastering gift of power,
To pierce the cloud-o'ershadowings of earth's strange mysterious hour—
To rend through dimly-visioned worlds a bright victorious way—
To soar into the height of heights, the excess of heaven's deep day!
To pierce the cloud-o'ershadowings of earth's strange mysterious hour—
To rend through dimly-visioned worlds a bright victorious way—
To soar into the height of heights, the excess of heaven's deep day!
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