"How the shadow the Ideal throws before it
darkens the actual." -- Zanoni
"La vie est un sommeil, l'amour en est le rêve;."
A sad, sweet dream; it fell upon my soul
When song and thought first woke their echoes there,
Swaying my...
I've met thee, whom I dared not hope to meet,
Save in the enchanted land of my day-dreams:
Yes, in this common world, this waking state,
Thy living presence on my vision beams --
Life's dream embodied in reality,
And in thine eyes I read indifference to me!...
Ideals are the Fairly Oil
With which we help the Wheel
But when the Vital Axle turns
The Eye rejects the Oil.
If all the griefs I am to have
Would only come today,
I am so happy I believe
They'd laugh and run away.
If all the joys I am to have
Would only come today,
They could not be so big as this
That happens to me now.
If any sink, assure that this, now standing —
Failed like Themselves — and conscious that it rose —
Grew by the Fact, and not the Understanding
How Weakness passed — or Force — arose —
Tell that the Worst, is easy in a Moment —
Dread, but the Whizzing, before the Ball —
When the Ball enters, enters...
If ever the lid gets off my head
And lets the brain away
The fellow will go where he belonged —
Without a hint from me,
And the world — if the world be looking on —
Will see how far from home
It is possible for sense to live
The soul there — all the time.
If He dissolve — then — there is nothing — more —
Eclipse — at Midnight —
It was dark — before —
Sunset — at Easter —
Blindness — on the Dawn —
Faint Star of Bethlehem —
Gone down!
Would but some God — inform Him —
Or it be too late!
Say — that the pulse just...
If I could bribe them by a Rose
I'd bring them every flower that grows
From Amherst to Cashmere!
I would not stop for night, or storm —
Or frost, or death, or anyone —
My business were so dear!
If they would linger for a Bird
My Tambourin were soonest heard
Among the April...
If I should die,
And you should live —
And time should gurgle on —
And morn should beam —
And noon should burn —
As it has usual done —
If Birds should build as early
And Bees as bustling go —
One might depart at option
From enterprise below!
'Tis sweet to...
If I should n't be alive
When the robins come,
Give the one in red cravat
A memorial crumb.
If I could n't thank you,
Being just asleep,
You will know I'm trying
With my granite lip !