Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/The Dream

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

For works with similar titles, see The Dream and Fragment.

Literary Gazette, 10th January, 1824, Pages 27-28

THE DREAM.

Farewell! and yet how may I teach
    My heart to say Farewell to thee?
My first young love, the light, the hope,
    The breath, the soul of life to me!

I had last night a strange wild dream,
    The very emblem of my love,—
I saw a stately eagle's wing
    Become the refuge for a dove.

And for a while most tenderly
    The eagle cherished his guest;
And never had the dove a home
    Of happiness like that fond breast.

It was a sight for Love to see
    That haughty and that gentle bird,
Caressing and carest, so soft
    The mingling murmurs from them heard.

But troubled grew the eagle's crest,
    And stern and careless his dark eye,
And so, regardless of the dove,
    I marvelled that she did not fly:

Then sudden spread his mighty plumes,
    And flung the helpless dove away;
There on the ground, with broken wing,
    And soiled and bleeding breast, she lay.

Poor silly bird! if thou hadst flown
    Before, this fate had not been thine.
I wakened, and I thought how soon
    Such fall, such falsehood, might be mine.