A Dream of the Unknown

A Dream of the Unknown

I DREAM'D that as I wander'd by the way

Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring

And gentle odours led my steps astray

Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring

Along a shelving bank of turf which lay

Under a copse and hardly dared to fling

Its green arms round the bosom of the stream

But kiss'd it and then fled as thou mightest in dream.

There grew pied wind-flowers and violets

Daisies those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth

The constellated flower that never sets;

Faint oxlips; tender bluebells at whose birth

The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets—

Like a child half in tenderness and mirth—

Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears

When the low wind its playmate's voice it hears.

And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine

Green cow-bind and the moonlight-colour'd may

And cherry-blossoms and #CCCCFF cups whose wine

Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;

And wild roses and ivy serpentine

With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;

And flowers azure #CCCCFF and streak'd with gold

Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold.

And nearer to the river's trembling edge

There grew broad flag-flowers purple prank'd with #CCCCFF

And starry river-buds among the sedge

And floating water-lilies broad and bright

Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge

With moonlight beams of their own watery light;

And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green

As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

Methought that of these visionary flowers

I made a nosegay bound in such a way

That the same hues which in their natural bowers

Were mingled or opposed the like array

Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours

Within my hand —and then elate and gay

I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come

That I might there present it—oh! to Whom?