“Only in Sleep”

Only in sleep I see their faces,

Children I played with when I was a child,

Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,

Annie with ringlets warm and wild.

Only in sleep Time is forgotten —

What may have come to them, who can know?

Yet we played last night as long ago,

And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.

The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,

I met their eyes and found them mild —

Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,

And for them am I too a child?