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Italy and Other Poems

By William Sotheby

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313

ON SEEING IN A DREAM THE VISION OF MY MOTHER.

Naples, March 19, 1817.
Let me again that look that voice recall!
Again, beneath the sunshine and broad day
Dwell on the dream of night! so wear away
Hour after hour, till on my eyelid fall
The vision and deep darkness!—Honour'd Shade!
I may not from the shelter of the tomb
Woo thee once more to earth's uncertain doom:
Yet would I fain, the while in slumber laid
I breathe thy name, that thou, at that still hour,
As in my childhood oft at dead of night,
Shouldst like a blessing on my sleep alight,
And on my brow draw Heav'n's protecting pow'r.