I DREAMED I had a plot of ground. Once on a time, as story saith, All closed in and closed round With a great wall, as black as death. I saw a hundred mornings break, So far a little dream may reach; And, like a blush on some fair cheek, The spring-time mantling over each. Sweet vines o'erhung, like vernal floods, The wall, I thought, and though I spied The glorious promise of the buds, They only bloomed the other side. Tears, torments, darkened all my ground, Yet Heaven, by starts, above me gleamed; I saw, with senses strangely bound, And in my dreaming knew I dreamed. Saying to my heart, these things are signs Sent to instruct us that 't is ours Duly to dress and keep our vines, Waiting in patience for the flowers. But when the angel, feared by all, Across my hearth his shadow spread, The rose that climbed my garden wall Had bloomed, the other side, I said. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WRECK OF THE DEUTSCHLAND by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS AN HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN FROM IRELAND by ANDREW MARVELL PENISKEE by THOMAS GOLD APPLETON WALT WHITMAN by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) PRODIGAL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |