VANISHED DREAMS

Dreams, only dreams. They sprang from loneliness

Of outer life; from innermost desire

To reach the soul that now in golden fire

Of cherished song I pray for and caress.

I wandered through the world with longing gaze,

To find her who was my hope's parallel,

That to her I might all my gospel tell

Of changeless love, and bid her make appraise.

I knew that some day I should look within

The ever-deepening distance of her eyes;

For, in my dreams, from veiled Seraphim

Came one, as if in answer to my cries:

And passing near me, pointed down the road

That led me at the last to thy abode.