Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume III/The Early Dream

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

CHAPTER XIX.

RETURN TO COURTENAYE HALL.

Ah! never another dream can be
    Like that early dream of ours,
When Hope, like a child, lay down to sleep
    Amid the folded flowers.

But Hope has wakened since, and wept
    Itself, like a rainbow, away;
And the flowers have faded, and fallen around,
    We have none for a wreath to-day.

Now, Truth has taken the place of Hope,
    And our hearts are like winter hours;
Little has after life been worth
    That early dream of ours.

Blanchard’s title is:

THE EARLY DREAM

Adapted from ‘Song’ in The Venetian Bracelet.

Musical setting: music by M. S., published 1st January 1840