 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
I HAVE HAD DREAMS.
I.
I have had dreams of bowers,Far off, beautiful, bright, and blest,
Fill'd with rich fruits and the sweetest flowers,
That delight, but disturb my rest!
Ever with rapture smiling,
They spread themselves, wooing and wiling,
To very madness beguiling,
The passions that fill my breast.
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II.
Fain would I fly, but I fly not—I have no strength to depart:
I would try, but I try not,
To drive their spells from my heart.
And my hopes of ambition are dying,
And my promise of fortune is flying,
Still on these visions relying,
I am spell'd by the cruellest art!
III.
Thus the bright serpent lies coiling,Watching the forest tree,
While the bird, won down by his wiling,
Flutters in vain to flee!
Like that fated bird, the lover
Round his danger will hover,
Till fetter'd by Fate, the rover
Droops sad to his destiny!
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |