Poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

A Dream

I was wand'ring in my sleep—
O what treasures thou dost keep
In thy wild imaginings,
Spirit of the folded wings!—
    Methought I was in a grove
Sacred to and home of Love;
In it there were thousand flowers,
Changing with the changing hours;
Fountains dancing in the shade
To music by their murmuring made;
While around acacia trees
Trifled with the sun and breeze.
    Wandering step and wandering sight
Were at first enough delight;
I gazed upon the azure sky,
Where the clouds went floating by,
Some tinged with the serpentine
Of the rainbow's opal line—
Others laden with the dew
Which illumines Morning's hue.
Then I mark'd a temple rise,
Made of marble, such as lies
In the vein of virgin snow
Round the Parian mountain's brow,
White as it were snow had grown,
By some magic, into stone.
All were to that shrine addrest,
And I enter'd with the rest;
All asked boons—what could I do,
But like them ask something too?
Down I knelt before the shrine,
Where was placed the Boy divine,
And I pray'd that I might prove
That deep happiness of love
Which will find all that can bless
In its own dear faithfulness.
As the God smiled on my prayer,
Melts the temple into air.
    I waken'd:—said my heart to me,
How like to reality!
Thus, alas! our hopes take flight,
Like the visions of the night!⁠

1. The Nameless Grave
2. Curtius
3. Love’s Choice
4. Lines to ——— (No, no! thou hast broken the spell that entwin'd me)
5. Ideal Likenesses. Ariadne

Lucretia Davidson A Dream ("Methought, unwitting how the place I gained")

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