Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/208

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
204
THERE IS A DREAM I CHERISH.

Such thoughts as these that silent ship within our souls awoke,
Are prophecies too sure and deep to be by darkness broke ;
And whether there be storms or not, our spirits linked must be,
Till our bark is moored in safety in the far Eternity.




THERE IS A DREAM I CHERISH.

Youthful hearts will seek romances—
Youthful hearts will have their fancies;
And there is a dream I cherish
That is with me all the day.
Of a grand old tree that springetli
Where its waving foliage flingeth
A soft shadow on the casement,
Where I muse the hours away—
A soft shadow, weary never
Of its light and shifting play.

This I dream—an angel spirit
Is forever hovering near it,
And within it and above it,
With a mission from the sky!
For the old tree seems to love me,
As it waves its boughs above me
With a faint and gentle murmur.
Or a low and saddened sigh;
For it seems to guard and cherish
Even the wayward dreamer—I!

There's a whisper and a blessing
In the beautiful caressing
Of the leaves that stoop to kiss me