Eugene Field

The Dreams

Two dreams came down to earth one night
  From the realm of mist and dew;
One was a dream of the old, old days,
  And one was a dream of the new.

One was a dream of a shady lane
  That led to the pickerel pond
Where the willows and rushes bowed themselves
  To the brown old hills beyond.

And the people that peopled the old-time dream
  Were pleasant and fair to see,
And the dreamer he walked with them again
  As often of old walked he.

Oh, cool was the wind in the shady lane
  That tangled his curly hair!
Oh, sweet was the music the robins made
  To the springtime everywhere!

Was it the dew the dream had brought
  From yonder midnight skies,
Or was it tears from the dear, dead years
  That lay in the dreamer's eyes?

The other dream ran fast and free,
  As the moon benignly shed
Her golden grace on the smiling face
  In the little trundle-bed.

For 't was a dream of times to come—
  Of the glorious noon of day—
Of the summer that follows the careless spring
  When the child is done with play.

And 't was a dream of the busy world
  Where valorous deeds are done;
Of battles fought in the cause of right,
  And of victories nobly won.

It breathed no breath of the dear old home
  And the quiet joys of youth;
It gave no glimpse of the good old friends
  Or the old-time faith and truth.

But 't was a dream of youthful hopes,
  And fast and free it ran,
And it told to a little sleeping child
  Of a boy become a man!

These were the dreams that came one night
  To earth from yonder sky;
These were the dreams two dreamers dreamed—
  My little boy and I.

And in our hearts my boy and I
  Were glad that it was so;
He loved to dream of days to come,
  And I of long ago.

So from our dreams my boy and I
  Unwillingly awoke,
But neither of his precious dream
  Unto the other spoke.

Yet of the love we bore those dreams
  Gave each his tender sign;
For there was triumph in his eyes—
  And there were tears in mine!