Ebb and Flow

I walked beside the evening sea, And dreamed a dream that could not be; The waves that plunged along the shore Said only—“Dreamer, dream no more!” But still the legions charged the beach; Loud rang their battle-cry, like speech; But changed was the imperial strain: It murmured—“Dreamer, dream again!” I homeward turned from out the gloom,— That sound I heard not in my room; But suddenly a sound, that stirred Within my very breast, I heard. It was my heart, that like a sea Within my breast beat ceaselessly: But like the waves along the shore, It said—“Dream on!” and “Dream no more!”