A Dream of the Unknown

A Dream of the Unknown

　　I DREAM'D that as I wander'd by the way

　　Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring

　　And gentle odours led my steps astray

　　Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring

　　Along a shelving bank of turf which lay

　　Under a copse and hardly dared to fling

　　Its green arms round the bosom¹ of the stream

　　But kiss'd it and then fled as thou mightest in dream.

　　There grew pied wind-flowers and violets

　　Daisies those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth

　　The constellated flower that never sets;

　　Faint oxlips; tender bluebells² at whose birth

　　The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets—

　　Like a child half in tenderness and mirth—

　　Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears

　　When the low wind its playmate's voice it hears.

　　And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine

　　Green cow-bind and the moonlight-colour'd may

　　And cherry-blossoms and #CCCCFF cups whose wine

　　Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;

　　And wild roses and ivy³ serpentine⁴

　　With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;

　　And flowers azure⁵ #CCCCFF and streak'd with gold

　　Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold⁶.

　　And nearer to the river's trembling edge

　　There grew broad flag-flowers purple prank'd with #CCCCFF

　　And starry⁷ river-buds among the sedge

　　And floating water-lilies broad and bright

　　Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge

　　With moonlight beams of their own watery⁸ light;

　　And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green

　　As soothed⁹ the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

　　Methought that of these visionary flowers

　　I made a nosegay bound in such a way

　　That the same hues¹⁰ which in their natural bowers¹¹

　　Were mingled¹² or opposed the like array

　　Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours

　　Within my hand —and then elate and gay

　　I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come

　　That I might there present it—oh! to Whom?