Dear Child, I also by pleasant streams 13
Have wander'd all Night in the Land of Dreams;
But tho' calm & warm the waters wide,
I could not get to the other side.
'Father, O father! what do we here 17
In this Land of unbelief and fear?
The Land of Dreams is better far,
Above the light of the Morning Star.'
Sweet Mary, the first time she ever was there, 1
Came into the Ball-room among the Fair;
The young Men & Maidens around her throng,
And these are the words upon every tongue:
'An Angel is here from the heavenly Climes, 5
Or again does return the Golden times;
Her eyes outshine every brilliant ray.
She opens her lips—'tis the Month of May.'
Mary moves in soft beauty & conscious delight, 9
To augment with sweet smiles all the joys of the Night,
Nor once blushes to own to the rest of the Fair
That sweet Love and Beauty are worthy our care.
In the Morning the Villagers rose with delight, 13
And repeated with pleasure the joys of the night.
And Mary arose among Friends to be free,
But no Friend from henceforward thou, Mary, shalt see.
Pickering MS. p. 8.
According to DGR this poem 'appears to be, on one side, an allegory of the poetic or spiritual mind moving unrecognized and reviled among its fellows; and this view of it is corroborated when we find Blake applying to himself two lines almost identically taken from it.' See note to ll. 21, 22, and Swinburne, Essay, p. 177.
6 again does return] All edd. except Shep. omit does.9-12 Shep. makes this stanza part of the preceding speech.
