Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
\nMy spirit not awak’ning, till the beam
\nOf an Eternity should bring the morrow.
\nYes! tho‘ that long dream were of hopeless sorrow.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTwere better than the cold reality
\nOf waking life, to him whose heart must be,
\nAnd hath been still, upon the lovely earth,
\nA chaos of deep passion, from his birth.
\nBut should it be \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that dream eternally
\nContinuing \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as dreams have been to me
\nIn my young boyhood \u00e2\u20ac\u201d should it thus be giv’n
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTwere folly still to hope for higher Heav’n.
\nFor I have revell’d when the sun was bright
\nIn the summer sky, in dreams of living light.
\nAnd loveliness, \u00e2\u20ac\u201d have left my very heart
\nInclines of mine imaginary [[In climes of my imaginings]] apart
\nFrom mine own home, with beings that have been
\nOf mine own thought \u00e2\u20ac\u201d what more could I have seen?
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcTwas once \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and only once \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and the wild hour
\nFrom my remembrance shall not pass \u00e2\u20ac\u201d some pow’r
\nOr spell had bound me \u00e2\u20ac\u201d ‚twas the chilly wind
\nCame o’er me in the night, and left behind
\nIts image on my spirit \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or the moon
\nShone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
\nToo coldly \u00e2\u20ac\u201d or the stars \u00e2\u20ac\u201d howe’er it was
\nThat dream was as that night-wind \u00e2\u20ac\u201d let it pass.
\nI have been happy, tho‘ in a dream.
\nI have been happy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and I love the theme :
\nDreams ! in their vivid colouring of life
\nAs in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
\nOf semblance with reality which brings
\nTo the delirious eye, more lovely things
\nOf Paradise and Love \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and all our own!
\nThan young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.<\/p>\n