 | Vigil and vision |  |
74
EDWARD BURNE JONES.
“NOUGHT is there better in this world than sleep,”The Arabs say; “excepting death it be”.
Sweet sleep in death and happy dreams to thee,
Fair soul, that still on earth didst vigil keep,
Life all too short the lovely shapes to reap,
That through thy brain went trooping ceaselessly,
Pleading in colour and in form to be
Bodied and rescued from the dreamland's deep!
The lovesome memories of a brighter day
Thou limnedst, to thy pencil, as my pen,
Dear, when more colour was in life and men
Were simpler than beneath our skies of gray.
Friend, may we meet in some serener land,
Where our lost dreams shall take us by the hand!
| Vigil and vision | |