A Day Dream

On a sunny brae alone I layOne summer afternoon;It was the marriage-time of May,With her young lover, June.

From her mother's heart seemed loath to partThat queen of bridal charms,But her father smiled on the fairest childHe ever held in his arms.

The trees did wave their plumy crests,The glad birds carolled clear;And I, of all the wedding guests,Was only sullen there!

There was not one but wished to shunMy aspect void of cheer;The very gray rocks, looking on,Asked, 'What do you here?'

And I could utter no reply;In sooth, I did not knowWhy I had brought a clouded eyeTo greet the general glow.So, resting on a heathy bank,I took my heart to me;And we together sadly sankInto a reverie.

We thought, 'When winter comes again,Where will these bright things be?All vanished, like a vision vain,An unreal mockery!

'The birds that now so blithely sing,Through deserts, frozen dry,Poor spectres of the perished spring,In famished troops will fly.

'And why should we be glad at all?The leaf is hardly green,Before a token of its fallIs on the surface seen!'

Now, whether it were really so,I never could be sure;But as in fit of peevish woe,I stretched me on the moor,

A thousand thousand gleaming firesSeemed kindling in the air;A thousand thousand silvery lyresResounded far and near:Methought, the very breath I breathedWas full of sparks divine,And all my heather-couch was wreathedBy that celestial shine!

And, while the wide earth echoing rungTo that strange minstrelsy,The little glittering spirits sung,Or seemed to sing, to me:

'O mortal! mortal! let them die;Let time and tears destroy,That we may overflow the skyWith universal joy!

'Let grief distract the sufferer's breast,And night obscure his way;They hasten him to endless rest,And everlasting day.

'To thee the world is like a tomb,A desert's naked shore;To us, in unimagined bloom,It brightens more and more!

'And, could we lift the veil, and giveOne brief glimpse to thine eye,Thou wouldst rejoice for those that live,Because they live to die.'The music ceased; the noonday dream,Like dream of night, withdrew;But Fancy, still, will sometimes deemHer fond creation true.