Poems (Katharine Elizabeth Howard)/Isle o' dreams

by Katharine Elizabeth Howard

ISLE O' DREAMS TO E. E. G.

Every poet has an island
Somewhere in the sea.
Sometimes in dreams my island rises,
Green as green can be.
There is silver mist around,
And a faint entrancing sound
Of lapping waves upon the sand.

There's a castle on my island;
It is terraced to the sea;
And a chamber 1n a tower 1s for me;
It is hung about in faded tapestry,
And the window high looks out upon the sea.

I sit there in my chamber and the sun shines dreamily
Upon heroic figures in the faded tapestry.
In the mirror on the wall myself I can not see,—
I see the room reflected, but not a stroke of me.

A sadness comes upon me because I cannot trace
Myself within the mirror. There are tears upon my face
When I wake, and yet so well I know
That sometime to my island I shall go.

Every poet has an island
Somewhere in the sea.
Sometimes in dreams my island rises
Green as green can be.