Henry Alford

A Day Dream

Leave love, leave life:-our moments are made up
Of fragments of desire: O that with thee
  In some tree-shaded vale
  I might live out my years;
Listening a lordly river over stones
Trailing its waters, or the leafy sighs
Of wooded hedge-rows; or in flowery paths
Nursing bright blooms; while still and unobserved
  The years should draw their train:
  Then under sunny rocks
Weave curious tales of love, and look through life
Into the inner springs of human thought;
Presenting to the insight of our souls
Honour, and faith, and old integrity,
  And mighty leaps of will
  Down the slow course of fate;
  And how the ages grand
  Tended with mystic chime
  Of night-enthralling song
  The Time-long sleep of Truth.