When Hope, the eagle that tower'd, could see
No cliff beyond him in the sky,
His pinions were bent droopingly-

And homeward turn'd his soften'd eye.
'T was sunset: when the sun will part

There comes a sullenness of heart

To him who still would look upon

The glory of the summer sun.

That soul will hate the ev'ning mist

So often lovely, and will list

To the sound of the coming darkness (known

To those whose spirits harken) as one

Who, in a dream of night, would fly

But cannot from a danger nigh.

I still was young; and well I ween
My spirit what it e'er had been.

My eyes were still on pomp and power,
My wilder'd heart was far away,
In vallies of the wild Taglay,

In mine own Ada's matted bow'r.
I dwelt not long in Samarcand
Ere, in a peasant's lowly guise,
I sought my long-abandon'd land,
By sunset did its mountains rise
In dusky grandeur to my eyes:
But as I wander'd on the way
My heart sunk with the sun's ray.

190

195

200

355

360

365

To him, who still would gaze upon

The glory of the summer sun,

There comes, when that sun will from him part,

A sullen hopelessness of heart.

That soul will hate the ev'ning mist

370

the silvery moon

What though the moon
Shine on his path, in her high noon;
Her smile is chilly, and her beam
In that time of dreariness will seem
As the portrait of one after death;
A likeness taken when the breath

Of young life, and the fire o' the eye,
Had lately been but had pass'd by.
'Tis thus when the lovely summer sun
Of our boyhood, his course hath run:
For all we live to know is known;
And all we seek to keep — hath flown;
With the noon-day beauty, which is all.
Let life, then, as the day-flow'r, fall
The trancient, passionate day-flow'r,
Withering at the ev'ning hour.

210

380

385

390

For all was flown that made it so

202 splendor: beauty (1831).

207-212 Omitted in 1831.

213-221 For these lines, 1831 substitutes the following:

I reach'd my home-what home? above,
My home-

my hope — my early love,

Lonely, like me, the desert rose,
Bow'd down with its own glory grows.

235 unpolluted: undefiled (Yankee, 1831).

243 very brilliant (Yankee). After this line, 1831 adds the following lines (which are an imperfect draft of A Dream within a Dream):

And in thine eye a kindling light

(Whatever it might be)

Was all on Earth my aching sight

Of Loveliness could see.

That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame —
As such it well may pass

Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame

In the breast of him, alas!

Who saw thee on that bridal day,

When that deep blush would come o'er thee,
Though happiness around thee lay,

The world all love before thee.

(1827)

DREAMS

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!

My spirit not awak'ning till the beam

5

15

Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.

Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,

'T were better than the cold reality

5

Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,

And hath been still, upon the lovely earth,

A chaos of deep passion, from his birth.
But should it be that dream eternally
Continuing - as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood should it thus be giv'n,
'T were folly still to hope for higher Heav'n.
For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
I' the summer sky, in dreams of living light

5 a: the (1827).

6 Of young passion free (1827).

7 aching: chain'd (1827), fetter'd (1829).

8 could: might (1827).

9 perhaps I ween (1827).

13 thee: the (1827).

IO