Perhaps a dream: yet surely truth has beamed Oft from the gate of dreams upon the brain As on yon mountain dark with thunder-rain; Today through cloudy clefts the glory streamed. Why do men doubt, and balance, and disdain Where she, the gentler spirit, seeks to skim Light from the vague, though thick the shadows swim, Still counting what she may not all explain-- Not to be lost, or lightly disesteemed Though cloudy of shape it seem, and meaning dim? Did Manoah's wife doubt ere she showed to him The angel standing in the golden grain? Had Deborah fear? or was that vision vain That Actia, Arlotte, and Mandane dreamed? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WE HAVE GONE THROUGH GREAT ROOMS TOGETHER by CARL SANDBURG ON THE MEMORABLE VICTORY OF PAUL JONES by PHILIP FRENEAU BOSTON COMMON: 1774 by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SPRING by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY RAIN by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON IN THE GARDEN AT SWAINSTON (IN MEMORIAM - SIR JOHN SIMEON) by ALFRED TENNYSON |