Pictures in Rhyme/'In my Dreams I see a Castle'
'IN MY DREAMS I SEE A CASTLE'
In my dreams I see a castle standing by the Northern seas,
Where the long Atlantic rollers lash the rugged Orcades,
And a stately lady walking up and down beneath the trees.
Why does the lady wander there, in robes of white array'd?
Why does she carry in her hand a sharp and shining blade,
While her features work with agony, her eyes with fear dismay'd?
She slowly passes through the grove of wind-swept melody,
Till she stands beside the ocean, and then, full suddenly,
She cuts her heart from out her breast, and casts it in the sea.
'O western wind! O wandering wave! seek Southern summer seas,
Bear him my bleeding heart from these far Northern castle-leas,
And tell him I love him now much better than all these.'
But the heart was passion-weighted—passion still unpurged of pride—
On the bosom of the billows it could not safely ride;
It never reach'd those summer seas, but sank beneath the tide.
The lady wanders still beside the dreary Northern sea,
And cries unto the wind and waves: 'Give back my heart to me.'
But the wind and waves make answer: 'That can never, never be.'