A Dream of the Unknown

　　I DREAM'D that as I wander'd by the way

　　Bare winter suddenly was changed to spring

　　And gentle odours led my steps astray

　　Mix'd with a sound of waters murmuring

　　Along a shelving bank of turf which lay

　　Under a copse and hardly dared to fling

　　Its green arms round the bosom of the stream

　　But kiss'd it and then fled as thou mightest in dream.

　　There grew pied wind-flowers and violets

　　Daisies those pearl'd Arcturi of the earth

　　The constellated flower that never sets;

　　Faint oxlips; tender bluebells at whose birth

　　The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets—

　　Like a child half in tenderness and mirth—

　　Its mother's face with heaven-collected tears

　　When the low wind its playmate's voice it hears.

　　And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine

　　Green cow-bind and the moonlight-colour'd may

　　And cherry-blossoms and #CCCCFF cups whose wine

　　Was the bright dew yet drain'd not by the day;

　　And wild roses and ivy serpentine

　　With its dark buds and leaves wandering astray;

　　And flowers azure #CCCCFF and streak'd with gold

　　Fairer than any waken'd eyes behold.

　　And nearer to the river's trembling edge

　　There grew broad flag-flowers purple prank'd with #CCCCFF

　　And starry river-buds among the sedge

　　And floating water-lilies broad and bright

　　Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge

　　With moonlight beams of their own watery light;

　　And bulrushes and reeds of such deep green

　　As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.

　　Methought that of these visionary flowers

　　I made a nosegay bound in such a way

　　That the same hues which in their natural bowers

　　Were mingled or opposed the like array

　　Kept these imprison'd children of the Hours

　　Within my hand —and then elate and gay

　　I hasten'd to the spot whence I had come

　　That I might there present it—oh! to Whom?