 | The magic fountain |  |
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A DREAM.
I slept upon my bridal bed,
My true love slept beside me;
When a bodeful dream, by slumber led,
With fearful thoughts supplied me.
My true love slept beside me;
When a bodeful dream, by slumber led,
With fearful thoughts supplied me.
I dreamed I sat with my own true love
By the green thorn tree in the forest,
Our frequent seat when through the grove
The moon-lit boughs looked hoarest.
By the green thorn tree in the forest,
Our frequent seat when through the grove
The moon-lit boughs looked hoarest.
I dreamed we sat beneath the thorn—
But the blue dawn long had glimmered,
And bright the beams of the rosy morn
On cloud and mountain shimmered.
But the blue dawn long had glimmered,
And bright the beams of the rosy morn
On cloud and mountain shimmered.
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A stern dark man from the thicket rushed,
Whose form I saw but dimly;
He felled the tree—then backward brushed
Through the greenwood, smiling grimly.
Whose form I saw but dimly;
He felled the tree—then backward brushed
Through the greenwood, smiling grimly.
Alas for my favourite tree! It lay
Along the earth's cold bosom,
No more to wave in the sunny ray
Its pride of leaf and blossom.
Along the earth's cold bosom,
No more to wave in the sunny ray
Its pride of leaf and blossom.
The dark man fled, but scornful cried,
Ere last in view he had shown him,
“E'en thus shall your true love fall by your side,
With all his youth upon him!”
Ere last in view he had shown him,
“E'en thus shall your true love fall by your side,
With all his youth upon him!”
I shrieked, and woke by my true love's side,
And my hurried clasp did fold him,
And sore I wept, and sore I sighed,
As the fearful dream I told him.
And my hurried clasp did fold him,
And sore I wept, and sore I sighed,
As the fearful dream I told him.
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I need not say that he dried my tears,
And laughed away my terror;
But O that my strange and bodeful fears
Had had their source in error!
And laughed away my terror;
But O that my strange and bodeful fears
Had had their source in error!
A few brief moons of love and glee
The kindest heart had shown him,
When he fell by Death like the green thorn tree,
With all his youth upon him!
The kindest heart had shown him,
When he fell by Death like the green thorn tree,
With all his youth upon him!
'Twas but a dream, that tree's o'erthrow,
It lives to bloom and quiver—
But no visioned stroke laid my love low
For ever and for ever!
It lives to bloom and quiver—
But no visioned stroke laid my love low
For ever and for ever!
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