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?

EAP