[ { "title": "The Dream", "author": "Amy Levy", "lines": [ "Believe me, this was true last night,", "Tho' it is false to-day.", "-- A.M.F. Robinson.", "", "", "A fair dream to my chamber flew:", "Such a crowd of folk that stirred,", "Jested, fluttered; only you,", "You alone of all that band,", "Calm and silent, spake no word.", "Only once you neared my place,", "And your hand one moment's space", "Sought the fingers of my hand;", "Your eyes flashed to mine; I knew", "All was well between us two.", "", "* * * * *", "", "On from dream to dream I past,", "But the first sweet vision cast", "Mystic radiance o'er the last.", "", "* * * * *", "", "When I woke the pale night lay", "Still, expectant of the day;", "All about the chamber hung", "Tender shade of twilight gloom;", "The fair dream hovered round me, clung", "To my thought like faint perfume:--", "Like sweet odours, such as cling", "To the void flask, which erst encloses", "Attar of rose; or the pale string", "Of amber which has lain with roses." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "The Dream Called Life", "author": "Edward Fitzgerald", "lines": [ "From the Spanish of Pedro Calderon de la Barca", "", "", "A dream it was in which I found myself.", "And you that hail me now, then hailed me king,", "In a brave palace that was all my own,", "Within, and all without it, mine; until,", "Drunk with excess of majesty and pride,", "Methought I towered so big and swelled so wide", "That of myself I burst the glittering bubble", "Which my ambition had about me blown,", "And all again was darkness. Such a dream", "As this, in which I may be walking now,", "Dispensing solemn justice to you shadows,", "Who make believe to listen; but anon", "Kings, princes, captains, warriors, plume and steel,", "Aye, even with all your airy theatre,", "May flit into the air you seem to rend", "With acclamations, leaving me to wake", "In the dark tower; or dreaming that I wake", "From this that waking is; or this and that,", "Both waking and both dreaming; such a doubt", "Confounds and clouds our moral life about.", "But whether wake or dreaming, this I know,", "How dreamwise human glories come and go;", "Whose momentary tenure not to break,", "Walking as one who knows he soon may wake,", "So fairly carry the full cup, so well", "Disordered insolence and passion quell,", "That there be nothing after to upbraid", "Dreamer or doer in the part he played;", "Whether tomorrow's dawn shall break the spell,", "Or the last trumpet of the Eternal Day,", "When dreaming, with the night, shall pass away." ], "linecount": "32" }, { "title": "The dreams", "author": "Eugene Field", "lines": [ "Two dreams came down to earth one night", "From the realm of mist and dew;", "One was a dream of the old, old days,", "And one was a dream of the new.", "", "One was a dream of a shady lane", "That led to the pickerel pond", "Where the willows and rushes bowed themselves", "To the brown old hills beyond.", "", "And the people that peopled the old-time dream", "Were pleasant and fair to see,", "And the dreamer he walked with them again", "As often of old walked he.", "", "Oh, cool was the wind in the shady lane", "That tangled his curly hair!", "Oh, sweet was the music the robins made", "To the springtime everywhere!", "", "Was it the dew the dream had brought", "From yonder midnight skies,", "Or was it tears from the dear, dead years", "That lay in the dreamer's eyes?", "", "The other dream ran fast and free,", "As the moon benignly shed", "Her golden grace on the smiling face", "In the little trundle-bed.", "", "For 't was a dream of times to come--", "Of the glorious noon of day--", "Of the summer that follows the careless spring", "When the child is done with play.", "", "And 't was a dream of the busy world", "Where valorous deeds are done;", "Of battles fought in the cause of right,", "And of victories nobly won.", "", "It breathed no breath of the dear old home", "And the quiet joys of youth;", "It gave no glimpse of the good old friends", "Or the old-time faith and truth.", "", "But 't was a dream of youthful hopes,", "And fast and free it ran,", "And it told to a little sleeping child", "Of a boy become a man!", "", "These were the dreams that came one night", "To earth from yonder sky;", "These were the dreams two dreamers dreamed--", "My little boy and I.", "", "And in our hearts my boy and I", "Were glad that it was so;", "He loved to dream of days to come,", "And I of long ago.", "", "So from our dreams my boy and I", "Unwillingly awoke,", "But neither of his precious dream", "Unto the other spoke.", "", "Yet of the love we bore those dreams", "Gave each his tender sign;", "For there was triumph in his eyes--", "And there were tears in mine!" ], "linecount": "56" }, { "title": "The Dream", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "Dear love, for nothing less than thee", "Would I have broke this happy dream;", "It was a theme", "For reason, much too strong for phantasy:", "Therefore thou waked'st me wisely; yet", "My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.", "Thou art so truth that thoughts of thee suffice", "To make dreams truths, and fables histories.", "Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best", "Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.", "As lightning or a taper's light,", "Thine eyes, and not thy noise, waked me;", "Yet I thought thee", "(For thou lov'st truth) an angel at first sight;", "But when I saw thou saw'st my heart,", "And knew'st my thoughts, beyond an angels art,", "When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when", "Excess of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,", "I must confess it could not choose but be", "Prophane to think thee anything but thee.", "", "Comming and staying showed thee thee,", "But rising makes me doubt, that now", "Thou art not thou.", "That Love is weak, where fear's as strong as he;", "'Tis not all spirit pure and brave", "If mixture it of Fear, Shame, Honour, have.", "Perchance as torches, which must ready be,", "Men light and put out, so thou deal'st with me,", "Thou cam'st to kindle, go'st to come; Then I", "Will dream that hope again, but else would die." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "The Dream of Eugene Aram", "author": "Thomas Hood", "lines": [ "'Twas in the prime of summer-time", "An evening calm and cool,", "And four-and-twenty happy boys", "Came bounding out of school:", "There were some that ran and some that leapt,", "Like troutlets in a pool.", "", "Away they sped with gamesome minds,", "And souls untouched by sin;", "To a level mead they came, and there", "They drave the wickets in:", "Pleasantly shone the setting sun", "Over the town of Lynn.", "", "Like sportive deer they coursed about,", "And shouted as they ran,--", "Turning to mirth all things of earth,", "As only boyhood can;", "But the Usher sat remote from all,", "A melancholy man!", "", "His hat was off, his vest apart,", "To catch heaven's blessed breeze;", "For a burning thought was in his brow,", "And his bosom ill at ease:", "So he leaned his head on his hands, and read", "The book upon his knees!", "", "Leaf after leaf he turned it o'er", "Nor ever glanced aside,", "For the peace of his soul he read that book", "In the golden eventide:", "Much study had made him very lean,", "And pale, and leaden-eyed.", "", "At last he shut the pond'rous tome,", "With a fast and fervent grasp", "He strained the dusky covers close,", "And fixed the brazen hasp;", "\"Oh, God! could I so close my mind,", "And clasp it with a clasp!\"", "", "Then leaping on his feet upright,", "Some moody turns he took,--", "Now up the mead, then down the mead,", "And past a shady nook,--", "And lo! he saw a little boy", "That pored upon a book.", "", "\"My gentle lad, what is't you read --", "Romance or fairy fable?", "Or is it some historic page,", "Of kings and crowns unstable?\"", "The young boy gave an upward glance,--", "\"It is 'The Death of Abel.'\"", "", "The Usher took six hasty strides,", "As smit with sudden pain, --", "Six hasty strides beyond the place,", "Then slowly back again;", "And down he sat beside the lad,", "And talked with him of Cain;", "", "And, long since then, of bloody men,", "Whose deeds tradition saves;", "Of lonely folks cut off unseen,", "And hid in sudden graves;", "Of horrid stabs, in groves forlorn,", "And murders done in caves;", "", "And how the sprites of injured men", "Shriek upward from the sod. --", "Ay, how the ghostly hand will point", "To show the burial clod:", "And unknown facts of guilty acts", "Are seen in dreams from God!", "", "He told how murderers walk the earth", "Beneath the curse of Cain, --", "With crimson clouds before their eyes,", "And flames about their brain:", "For blood has left upon their souls", "Its everlasting stain!", "", "\"And well,\" quoth he, \"I know for truth,", "Their pangs must be extreme, --", "Woe, woe, unutterable woe, --", "Who spill life's sacred stream!", "For why, Methought last night I wrought", "A murder, in a dream!", "", "One that had never done me wrong --", "A feeble man and old;", "I led him to a lonely field,", "The moon shone clear and cold:", "Now here, said I, this man shall die,", "And I will have his gold!", "", "\"Two sudden blows with a ragged stick,", "And one with a heavy stone,", "One hurried gash with a hasty knife, --", "And then the deed was done:", "There was nothing lying at my foot", "But lifeless flesh and bone!", "", "\"Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone,", "That could not do me ill;", "And yet I feared him all the more,", "For lying there so still:", "There was a manhood in his look,", "That murder could not kill!\"", "", "\"And lo! the universal air", "Seemed lit with ghastly flame;", "Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes", "Were looking down in blame:", "I took the dead man by his hand,", "And called upon his name!", "", "\"O God! it made me quake to see", "Such sense within the slain!", "But when I touched the lifeless clay,", "The blood gushed out amain!", "For every clot, a burning spot", "Was scorching in my brain!", "", "\"My head was like an ardent coal,", "My heart as solid ice;", "My wretched, wretched soul, I knew,", "Was at the Devil's price:", "A dozen times I groaned: the dead", "Had never groaned but twice!", "", "\"And now, from forth the frowning sky,", "From the Heaven's topmost height,", "I heard a voice -- the awful voice", "Of the blood-avenging sprite --", "'Thou guilty man! take up thy dead", "And hide it from my sight!'", "", "\"I took the dreary body up,", "And cast it in a stream, --", "A sluggish water, black as ink,", "The depth was so extreme:", "My gentle boy, remember this", "Is nothing but a dream!", "", "\"Down went the corse with a hollow plunge,", "And vanished in the pool;", "Anon I cleansed my bloody hands,", "And washed my forehead cool,", "And sat among the urchins young,", "That evening in the school.", "", "\"Oh, Heaven! to think of their white souls,", "And mine so black and grim!", "I could not share in childish prayer,", "Nor join in Evening Hymn:", "Like a Devil of the Pit I seemed,", "'Mid holy Cherubim!", "", "\"And peace went with them, one and all,", "And each calm pillow spread;", "But Guilt was my grim Chamberlain", "That lighted me to bed;", "And drew my midnight curtains round", "With fingers bloody red!", "", "\"All night I lay in agony,", "In anguish dark and deep,", "My fevered eyes I dared not close,", "But stared aghast at Sleep:", "For Sin had rendered unto her", "The keys of Hell to keep!", "", "\"All night I lay in agony,", "From weary chime to chime,", "With one besetting horrid hint,", "That racked me all the time;", "A mighty yearning, like the first", "Fierce impulse unto crime!", "", "\"One stern, tyrannic thought, that made", "All other thoughts its slave;", "Stronger and stronger every pulse", "Did that temptation crave, --", "Still urging me to go and see", "The Dead Man in his grave!", "", "\"Heavily I rose up, as soon", "As light was in the sky,", "And sought the black accursèd pool", "With a wild misgiving eye:", "And I saw the Dead in the river-bed,", "For the faithless stream was dry.", "", "\"Merrily rose the lark, and shook", "The dewdrop from its wing;", "But I never marked its morning flight,", "I never heard it sing:", "For I was stooping once again", "Under the horrid thing.", "", "\"With breathless speed, like a soul in chase,", "I took him up and ran;", "There was no time to dig a grave", "Before the day began:", "In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves,", "I hid the murdered man!", "", "\"And all that day I read in school,", "But my thought was otherwhere;", "As soon as the midday task was done,", "In secret I went there:", "And a mighty wind had swept the leaves,", "And still the corpse was bare!", "", "\"Then down I cast me on my face,", "And first began to weep,", "For I knew my secret then was one", "That earth refused to keep:", "Or land, or sea, though he should be", "Ten thousand fathoms deep.", "", "\"So wills the fierce avenging Sprite,", "Till blood for blood atones!", "Ay, though he's buried in a cave,", "And trodden down with stones,", "And years have rotted off his flesh, --", "The world shall see his bones!", "", "\"Oh God! that horrid, horrid dream", "Besets me now awake!", "Again--again, with dizzy brain,", "The human life I take:", "And my red right hand grows raging hot,", "Like Cranmer's at the stake.", "", "\"And still no peace for the restless clay,", "Will wave or mould allow;", "The horrid thing pursues my soul --", "It stands before me now!\"", "The fearful Boy looked up, and saw", "Huge drops upon his brow.", "", "That very night while gentle sleep", "The urchin's eyelids kissed,", "Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn,", "Through the cold and heavy mist;", "And Eugene Aram walked between,", "With gyves upon his wrist." ], "linecount": "216" }, { "title": "The Dream", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Our life is twofold: Sleep hath its own world,", "A boundary between the things misnamed", "Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world,", "And a wide realm of wild reality,", "And dreams in their developement have breath,", "And tears, and tortures, and the touch of Joy;", "They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts,", "They take a weight from off our waking toils,", "They do divide our being; they become", "A portion of ourselves as of our time,", "And look like heralds of Eternity;", "They pass like spirits of the past,--they speak", "Like Sibyls of the future; they have power--", "The tyranny of pleasure and of pain;", "They make us what we were not--what they will,", "And shake us with the vision that's gone by,", "The dread of vanished shadows--Are they so?", "Is not the past all shadow?--What are they?", "Creations of the mind?--The mind can make", "Substance, and people planets of its own", "With beings brighter than have been, and give", "A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.", "I would recall a vision which I dreamed", "Perchance in sleep--for in itself a thought,", "A slumbering thought, is capable of years,", "And curdles a long life into one hour.", "", "I saw two beings in the hues of youth", "Standing upon a hill, a gentle hill,", "Green and of mild declivity, the last", "As 'twere the cape of a long ridge of such,", "Save that there was no sea to lave its base,", "But a most living landscape, and the wave", "Of woods and cornfields, and the abodes of men", "Scattered at intervals, and wreathing smoke", "Arising from such rustic roofs;--the hill", "Was crowned with a peculiar diadem", "Of trees, in circular array, so fixed,", "Not by the sport of nature, but of man:", "These two, a maiden and a youth, were there", "Gazing--the one on all that was beneath", "Fair as herself--but the Boy gazed on her;", "And both were young, and one was beautiful:", "And both were young--yet not alike in youth.", "As the sweet moon on the horizon's verge,", "The Maid was on the eve of Womanhood;", "The Boy had fewer summers, but his heart", "Had far outgrown his years, and to his eye", "There was but one belovéd face on earth,", "And that was shining on him: he had looked", "Upon it till it could not pass away;", "He had no breath, no being, but in hers;", "She was his voice; he did not speak to her,", "But trembled on her words; she was his sight,", "For his eye followed hers, and saw with hers,", "Which coloured all his objects:--he had ceased", "To live within himself; she was his life,", "The ocean to the river of his thoughts,", "Which terminated all: upon a tone,", "A touch of hers, his blood would ebb and flow,", "And his cheek change tempestuously--his heart", "Unknowing of its cause of agony.", "But she in these fond feelings had no share:", "Her sighs were not for him; to her he was", "Even as a brother--but no more; 'twas much,", "For brotherless she was, save in the name", "Her infant friendship had bestowed on him;", "Herself the solitary scion left", "Of a time-honoured race.--It was a name", "Which pleased him, and yet pleased him not--and why?", "Time taught him a deep answer--when she loved", "Another: even _now_ she loved another,", "And on the summit of that hill she stood", "Looking afar if yet her lover's steed", "Kept pace with her expectancy, and flew.", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "There was an ancient mansion, and before", "Its walls there was a steed caparisoned:", "Within an antique Oratory stood", "The Boy of whom I spake;--he was alone,", "And pale, and pacing to and fro: anon", "He sate him down, and seized a pen, and traced", "Words which I could not guess of; then he leaned", "His bowed head on his hands, and shook as 'twere", "With a convulsion--then arose again,", "And with his teeth and quivering hands did tear", "What he had written, but he shed no tears.", "And he did calm himself, and fix his brow", "Into a kind of quiet: as he paused,", "The Lady of his love re-entered there;", "She was serene and smiling then, and yet", "She knew she was by him beloved--she knew,", "For quickly comes such knowledge, that his heart", "Was darkened with her shadow, and she saw", "That he was wretched, but she saw not all.", "He rose, and with a cold and gentle grasp", "He took her hand; a moment o'er his face", "A tablet of unutterable thoughts", "Was traced, and then it faded, as it came;", "He dropped the hand he held, and with slow steps", "Retired, but not as bidding her adieu,", "For they did part with mutual smiles; he passed", "From out the massy gate of that old Hall,", "And mounting on his steed he went his way;", "And ne'er repassed that hoary threshold more.", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "The Boy was sprung to manhood: in the wilds", "Of fiery climes he made himself a home,", "And his Soul drank their sunbeams: he was girt", "With strange and dusky aspects; he was not", "Himself like what he had been; on the sea", "And on the shore he was a wanderer;", "There was a mass of many images", "Crowded like waves upon me, but he was", "A part of all; and in the last he lay", "Reposing from the noontide sultriness,", "Couched among fallen columns, in the shade", "Of ruined walls that had survived the names", "Of those who reared them; by his sleeping side", "Stood camels grazing, and some goodly steeds", "Were fastened near a fountain; and a man", "Clad in a flowing garb did watch the while,", "While many of his tribe slumbered around:", "And they were canopied by the blue sky,", "So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful,", "That God alone was to be seen in Heaven.", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "The Lady of his love was wed with One", "Who did not love her better:--in her home,", "A thousand leagues from his,--her native home,", "She dwelt, begirt with growing Infancy,", "Daughters and sons of Beauty,--but behold!", "Upon her face there was the tint of grief,", "The settled shadow of an inward strife,", "And an unquiet drooping of the eye,", "As if its lid were charged with unshed tears.", "What could her grief be?--she had all she loved,", "And he who had so loved her was not there", "To trouble with bad hopes, or evil wish,", "Or ill-repressed affliction, her pure thoughts.", "What could her grief be?--she had loved him not,", "Nor given him cause to deem himself beloved,", "Nor could he be a part of that which preyed", "Upon her mind--a spectre of the past.", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "The Wanderer was returned.--I saw him stand", "Before an Altar--with a gentle bride;", "Her face was fair, but was not that which made", "The Starlight of his Boyhood;--as he stood", "Even at the altar, o'er his brow there came", "The self-same aspect, and the quivering shock", "That in the antique Oratory shook", "His bosom in its solitude; and then--", "As in that hour--a moment o'er his face", "The tablet of unutterable thoughts", "Was traced,--and then it faded as it came,", "And he stood calm and quiet, and he spoke", "The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,", "And all things reeled around him; he could see", "Not that which was, nor that which should have been--", "But the old mansion, and the accustomed hall,", "And the remembered chambers, and the place,", "The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,", "All things pertaining to that place and hour", "And her who was his destiny, came back", "And thrust themselves between him and the light:", "What business had they there at such a time?", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "The Lady of his love;--Oh! she was changed", "As by the sickness of the soul; her mind", "Had wandered from its dwelling, and her eyes", "They had not their own lustre, but the look", "Which is not of the earth; she was become", "The Queen of a fantastic realm; her thoughts", "Were combinations of disjointed things;", "And forms, impalpable and unperceived", "Of others' sight, familiar were to hers.", "And this the world calls frenzy; but the wise", "Have a far deeper madness--and the glance", "Of melancholy is a fearful gift;", "What is it but the telescope of truth?", "Which strips the distance of its fantasies,", "And brings life near in utter nakedness,", "Making the cold reality too real!", "", "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.", "The Wanderer was alone as heretofore,", "The beings which surrounded him were gone,", "Or were at war with him; he was a mark", "For blight and desolation, compassed round", "With Hatred and Contention; Pain was mixed", "In all which was served up to him, until,", "Like to the Pontic monarch of old days,", "He fed on poisons, and they had no power,", "But were a kind of nutriment; he lived", "Through that which had been death to many men,", "And made him friends of mountains: with the stars", "And the quick Spirit of the Universe", "He held his dialogues; and they did teach", "To him the magic of their mysteries;", "To him the book of Night was opened wide,", "And voices from the deep abyss revealed", "A marvel and a secret--Be it so.", "", "My dream was past; it had no further change.", "It was of a strange order, that the doom", "Of these two creatures should be thus traced out", "Almost like a reality--the one", "To end in madness--both in misery." ], "linecount": "206" } ]