Poems (Angier)/A Dream

by Annie Lanman Angier

For works with similar titles, see A Dream.

A DREAM.

On her couch the sleeper lay,
Weary, like a child, with play;
And a child in heart she seems,
Who so sweetly, strangely dreams:
All is silent in the room,
Save the clock that cheers the gloom
With its gentle tick, which numbers
Every hour while Norah slumbers.

From its cage the spirit springs,
Plumes its light and airy wings;
Now it sips the sparkling dew,
Soaring through the ether blue;
Now, near shining gate of pearl,
Doth the soul its pinions furl;
And while breathless listening there,
Strains of music greet her ear.

Forms familiar, too, are seen—
Angel forms, with angel mien;
Father, with his snowy hair,
Mother, with her beauty rare;
Infant sister, infant brother,
Yet one more, and still another—
Severed links of houshold chain,
When will they unite again?
Hears the soul this answer given—
They shall meet who live for heaven.

Now each golden harp is strung,
Fall these notes from every tongue;
Pure in heart, in word, in deed,
This white garment mortals need;
In robe like this while here below,
An angel's bliss may mortal know.
Each day let Duty's task be done—
By victor is the laurel won—
On earth who angel-like will live,
In heaven an angel's crown receive.

Purple glows the eastern sky,
Gray dawn opes her golden eye;
And though morn, with rosy fingers,
Lifts those lids, the vision lingers;
And its moral is imprest
Deep within the sleeper's breast,
While the truant soul back
 To its home has flown;
To its home in the bosom
 Of Norah Nohone.