Dream Cycle

By the pool that I see in my dreams, dear love,
I have sat with you time and again;
And listened beneath the dank leaves, dear love,
To the sibilant sound of the rain.

And the pool, it is silvery bright, dear love,
And as pure as the heart of a maid,
As sparkling and dimpling, it darkles and shines
In the depths of the heart of the glade.

But, oh, I’ ve a wish in my soul, dear love,
(The wish of a dreamer, it seems,)
That I might wash free of my sins, dear love,
In the pool that I see in my dreams.

The river sleeps beneath the sky,
And clasps the shadows to its breast;
The crescent moon shines dim on high;
And in the lately radiant west

The gold is fading into gray.
Now stills the lark his festive lay,
And mourns with me the dying day.
While in the south the first faint star
Lifts to the night its silver face,
And twinkles to the moon afar
Across the heaven’s graying space,
Low murmurs reach me from the town,
As Day puts on her sombre crown,
And shakes her mantle darkly down.

Why fades a dream?
  An iridescent ray
Flecked in between the tryst
  Of night and day.
  Why fades a dream? -- 
Of consciousness the shade
Wrought out by lack of light and made
  Upon life's stream.
  Why fades a dream?

That thought may thrive,
  So fades the fleshless dream;
Lest men should learn to trust
  The things that seem.
  So fades a dream,
That living thought may grow
And like a waxing star-beam glow
  Upon life's stream -- 
  So fades a dream.