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PARADISE.
PARADISE.
ONCE in a dream I saw the flowers
That bud and bloom in Paradise:
More fair they are than waking eyes
Have seen in all this world of ours.
And faint the perfume-bearing rose,
And faint the lily on its stem,
And faint the perfect violet
  Compared with them.

I heard the songs of Paradise:
Each bird sat singing in his place;
A tender song so full of grace
It soared like incense to the skies,
Each bird sat singing to his mate
Soft cooing notes among the trees:
The nightingale herself were cold
  To such as these.

I saw the fourfold River flow,
And deep it was, with golden sand;
It flowed between a mossy land
With murmured music grave and low.
It hath refreshment for all thirst,
For fainting spirits strength and rest;
Earth holds not such a draught as this
  From east to west.