Like tears shed over a dream...

Like tears shed over a dream,

Like sighs that stream

In an unseen nameless way

Into the heart of our lay.

It seemed hour on hours,

Years like fading flowers

Scattered their petals and bloom

In a half-lit forest of gloom.

The softness of its sounds,

Like the coursing of a million hounds

Of dream over the glade of sleep

Where tortured silences creep.

Exquisite, pain-laden, peaceful,

This night most beautiful,

What love forsaken by loving

Sets his heart a'singing?

No torment in it, but tenderness;

A liquid star-music of sadness

Pours into my soul half asleep;

While the willows at my window weep.