A dream

A Dream

In visions of the dark night

       I have dreamed of joy departed—

But a waking dream of life and light

       Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day

       To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him with a ray

       Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream—that holy dream,

       While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

       A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,

       So trembled from afar—

What could there be more purely bright

   In Truth's day-star?