Poems (Bell)/A Dream

by Clara L. Bell

For works with similar titles, see A Dream.

A DREAM.

I dreamed of a beautiful mansion,
 Halls pavéd with marble so cold!
Rare statues and tapestries, pictures
 And books bound in vellum and gold!

Outside, there were beautiful gardens
 Filled with plants so lovely and rare,
Their exotic perfume all filling
 With fragrance, the rooms and the air.

On a couch in a corner reclining
 (In a room, the hangings light blue),
As I gazed I saw there, my lover,
 My darling so fond and so true!

But so different—the look on his face!
 And he looked so white and so cold
That a feeling of horror stole o'er me,
 And of sorrow and doubt all untold.

I awoke! but the memory lingers
 Of the clasp of a cold, white hand,
The beauty and perfume of flowers,
 And a doubt I cannot understand.

And I fear that some ill has befallen
 Him in that far-away land,
And that that is the cause of my fears
 And of the doubt, I cannot understand.