Poems (Rice)/A Love-dream

by Maria Theresa Rice

A LOVE-DREAM.

LONG before the star of morning
Had dissolved in ether blue,
I arose to watch the dawning
Which my sleeping fancy drew;
Like the star of love, 'twas beaming
All around, below, above—
All the glorious world was teeming
With the richness of His love.
I had hoped to paint the feelings
Which my dream-wrapt spirit found,
Sweetest of the soul's revealings,
But those depths we cannot sound;
Waking, all the hues will vanish,
Evanescing while we dream;
Strive we may the world to banish,
Yet how dim the colors seem.
Dreamed I of a friend so loving,
Waited on his every word,
Till his voice, so rich, beguiling,
All my inmost being stirred;
Well I knew by intuition
All his wishes unexpressed,
Languished for the full fruition
Of his love, to be caressed.
On a couch of flowers reclining
We together talked of bliss,
Ne'er resisting, ne'er declining;
Then, O then, the rapturous kiss;
Then he pressed me to his bosom,
Throbbing with the glowing charm,
There I rested, dumb, bewildered,
Faint with bliss upon his arm.