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Poem by William Allingham


A Dream


I heard the dogs howl in the moonlight night;
I went to the window to see the sight;
All the Dead that ever I knew
Going one by one and two by two.

On they pass'd, and on they pass'd;
Townsfellows all, from first to last;
Born in the moonlight of the lane,
Quench'd in the heavy shadow again.

Schoolmates, marching as when they play'd
At soldiers once - but now more staid;
Those were the strangest sight to me
Who were drown'd, I knew, in the awful sea.

Straight and handsome folk, bent and weak, too;
Some that I loved, and gasp'd to speak to;
Some but a day in their churchyard bed;
Some that I had not known were dead.

A long, long crowd - where each seem'd lonely,
Yet of them all there was one, one only,
Raised a head or look'd my way;
She linger'd a moment - she might not stay.

How long since I saw that fair pale face!
Ah! Mother dear! might I only place
My head on thy breast, a moment to rest,
While thy hand on my tearful cheek were prest!

On, on, a moving bridge they made
Across the moon-stream, from shade to shade,
Young and old, women and men;
Many long-forgot, but remembered then,

And first there came a bitter laughter;
A sound of tears a moment after;
And then a music so lofty and gay,
That eve morning, day by day,
I strive to recall it if I may. 



William Allingham


William Allingham's other poems:
  1. Wayconnell Tower
  2. A Burial-place
  3. To the Castle of Donegal
  4. In Highgate Cemetery
  5. The Emigrant’s Adieu to Ballyshannon


Poems of the other poets with the same name:

  • Matthew Arnold A Dream ("Was it a dream? We sail'd, I thought we sail'd")
  • Robert Burns A Dream ("Guid-Mornin' to our Majesty!") 1786
  • Christina Rossetti A Dream ("Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you)")
  • Thomas Moore A Dream ("I thought this heart enkindled lay")
  • Coventry Patmore A Dream ("Amid the mystic fields of Love")
  • Bernard Barton A Dream ("A DREAM came lately in the hours")
  • Thomas Parnell A Dream ("Just when ye dead of night began to fail")
  • Stephen Phillips A Dream ("MY dead love came to me, and said")
  • Letitia Landon A Dream ("I was wand'ring in my sleep")
  • Edgar Poe A Dream ("In visions of the dark night")
  • Alice Cary A Dream ("I DREAMED I had a plot of ground")
  • Mathilde Blind A Dream ("Only a dream, a beautiful baseless dream")
  • Lucretia Davidson A Dream ("Methought, unwitting how the place I gained")

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