A DREAM OF LONG AGO

Lying listless in the mosses

Underneath a tree that tosses

Flakes of sunshine, and embosses

Its green shadow with the snow —

Drowsy-eyed, I sink in slumber

Born of fancies without number —

Tangled fancies that encumber

Me with dreams of long ago.

Ripples of the river singing;

And the water-lilies swinging

Bells of Parian, and ringing

Peals of perfume faint and fine,

While old forms and fairy faces

Leap from out their hiding-places

In the past, with glad embraces

Fraught with kisses sweet as wine.

Willows dip their slender fingers

O'er the little fisher's stringers,

While he baits his hook and lingers

Till the shadows gather dim;

And afar off comes a calling

Like the sounds of water falling,

With the lazy echoes drawling

Messages of haste to him.

Little naked feet that tinkle

Through the stubble-fields, and twinkle

Down the winding road, and sprinkle

Little mists of dusty rain,

While in pasture-lands the cattle

Cease their grazing with a rattle

Of the bells whose clappers tattle

To their masters down the lane.

Trees that hold their tempting treasures

O'er the orchard's hedge embrasures,

Furnish their forbidden pleasures

As in Eden lands of old;

And the coming of the master

Indicates a like disaster

To the frightened heart that faster

Beats pulsations manifold.

Puckered lips whose pipings tingle

In staccato notes that mingle

Musically with the jingle-

Haunted winds that lightly fan

Mellow twilights, crimson-tinted

By the sun, and picture-printed

Like a book that sweetly hinted

Of the Nights Arabian.

Porticoes with columns plaited

And entwined with vines and freighted

With a bloom all radiated

With the light of moon and star;

Where some tender voice is winging

In sad flights of song, and singing

To the dancing fingers flinging

Dripping from the sweet guitar.

Would my dreams were never taken

From me: that with faith unshaken

I might sleep and never waken

On a weary world of woe!

Links of love would never sever

As I dreamed them, never, never!

I would glide along forever

Through the dreams of long ago.