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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MEMORY'S DREAM, by WILLIAM STEWARD GORDON
First Line: I dreamed a dream-but who can tell
Last Line: They both were mine and must not go!
Subject(s): Memory; Shadows
First Line: I dreamed a dream-but who can tell
Last Line: They both were mine and must not go!
Subject(s): Memory; Shadows
I dreamed a dream—but who can tell
If breathed from heaven or born in hell!
There glided from the wings of night
An angel fair—a shrouded sprite.
These mismatched ghosts of joy and pain
Danced hand in hand across my brain—
Together sang a sad sweet song
Of bliss divine and speechless wrong.
They both upon my heart-strings played,
O'er tender scars and wounds new made.
Their mystic music filled the air
Like lover's laugh and martyr's prayer—
Both blent in one, for evermore
They sobbed against the silent shore.
When I awoke my cheeks were wet—
The old-time pain was ling'ring yet,
But, as the tread on flow'ret fair
Distills the fragrance hidden there,
Those grief-born shadows of the past
Were with a halo overcast.
And thus I clung to weal and woe—
They both were mine and must not go!
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SONATA IN PATHOS by CONRAD AIKEN
I LOOKED FOR LIFE AND DID A SHADOW SEE by JAMES GALVIN
A HUSTLE FOR THE FAIR by WILLIAM STEWARD GORDON