The Dream and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

'Twas in youth, that hour of dreaming;
Round me, visions fair were beaming,
Golden fancies, brightly gleaming,
Such as start to birth
When the wandering restless mind,
Drunk with beauty, thinks to find
Creatures of a fairy kind
Realised on Earth!

II

Then, for me, in every dell
Hamadryads seem'd to dwell
(They who die, as Poets tell,
Each with her own tree);
And sweet mermaids, low reclining,
Dim light through their grottos shining,
Green weeds round their soft limbs twining,
Peopled the deep Sea.

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III

Then, when moon and stars were fair,
Nymph-like visions fill'd the air,
With blue wings and golden hair
Bending from the skies;
And each cave by echo haunted
In its depth of shadow granted,
Brightly, the Egeria wanted,
To my eager eyes.

IV

But those glories pass'd away;
Earth seem'd left to dull decay,
And my heart in sadness lay,
Desolate, uncheer'd;
Like one wrapt in painful sleeping,
Pining, thirsting, waking, weeping,
Watch thro' Life's dark midnight keeping,
Till thy form appear'd!

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V

Then my soul, whose erring measure
Knew not where to find true pleasure,
Woke and seized the golden treasure
Of thy human love;
And, looking on thy radiant brow,
My lips in gladness breathed the vow
Which angels, not more fair than thou,
Have register'd above.

VI

And now I take my quiet rest,
With my head upon thy breast,
I will make no further quest
In Fancy's realms of light;
Fay, nor nymph, nor wingèd spirit,
Shall my store of love inherit;
More thy mortal charm doth merit
Than dream, however bright:

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VII

And my soul,—like some sweet bird
Whose song at summer eve is heard,
When the breeze, so lightly stirr'd,
Leaves the branch unbent,—
Sits and all-triumphant sings,
Folding up her brooding wings,
And gazing out on earthly things
With a calm content.