Poem by Henry Alford

* * *

I had the sweetest dream but yesternight
About the lady of my love:
I saw her sitting in a faint green light
With twisted boughs above.

Her russet hair flowed moistly down her neck
Parting each tender blooming cheek;
And beautiful young roses seemed to deck
Her bosom chaste and meek.

Some deeply--working thought with strong control
Cast down those eyes I longed to see;
And I could tell that all her virgin soul
Was faint for love of me.

No barrier thwarts the creatures of the mind:
I crept and sat me down by her;
And put, as I was wont, my arm behind
Her neck, within her hair.

I saw the sweetest gleam of heavenly light
Look from her moist uplifted eyes;
The deepest blush of unforewarned delight
Up to her warm cheeks rise.

But all in one sad moment utterly
Gone was the charm that wrought for us:
The vision faded from my sight, and I
Awoke to tell it thus.

1. Sacred to the Memory of E. S.
2. 1846
3. Written at Ampton, Suffolk, January, 1838
4. Sunset at Burton Pynsent, Somerset
5. Sonnet Written at a Distance from Home

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