Flame and Shadow/"Only in Sleep"

by Sara Teasdale

 

"ONLY IN SLEEP"

Only in sleep I see their faces,
⁠Children I played with when I was a child,
Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,
⁠Annie with ringlets warm and wild.

Only in sleep Time is forgotten—
⁠What may have come to them, who can know?
⁠Yet we played last night as long ago,
And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.

The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,
⁠I met their eyes and found them mild—
Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,
⁠And for them am I too a child?