Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream

In visions of the dark night
⁠    I have dreamed of joy departed—
But a waking dream of life and light
⁠    Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
⁠⁠    To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
⁠    ⁠Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream—that holy dream,
⁠⁠    While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
⁠⁠    A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,
⁠⁠    So trembled from afar—
What could there be more purely bright
⁠⁠    In Truth's day-star?