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RETROSPECTION, SELS., by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dream that stole o'er us in the time
Last Line: Naught redder than the roseate ring %that glitters fit for the eastern king
Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Currer


Dream that stole o'er us in the time
When life was in its vernal clime,
Dream that still faster o'er us steals
As the wild star of spring declining
The advent of that day reveals,
That glows in Sirius fiery shining:
Oh! as thou swellest, and as the scenes
Cover this cold world's darkest features,
Stronger each change my spirit weans
To bow before thy god-like creatures.


When I sat 'neath a strange roof-tree
With nought I knew or loved around me
Oh how my heart shrank back to thee
Then I felt how fast thy ties had bound me


That hour that bleak hour when the day
Closed in the cold autumnal gloaming
When the clouds hung so bleak & drear & grey
And a bitter wind through their folds was roaming


There shone no fire on, the cheerless hearth
In the chamber there gleamed no taper's twinkle
Within neither sight nor sound of mirth
Without but the blast & the sleet's chill sprinkle


Then sadly I longed for my own dear home
For a sight of the old familliar faces
I drew near the casement & sat in its gloom
And looked forth on the tempests desolate traces


Ever anon that wolfish breeze
The dead leaves & sere from their boughs was shaking
And I gazed on the hills through the leafless trees
And I felt as if my heart was breaking


Where was I e're an hour had past
Still list'ning to that dreary blast
Still in that mirthless lifeless room
Cramped, chilled & deadened by its gloom


No! thanks to that bright darling dream
Its power had shot one kindling gleam
Its voice had sent one wakening cry
And bade me lay my sorrows by
And called me earnestly to come
And borne me to my moorland home
I heard no more the senseless sound
Of task & chat that hummed around
I saw no more that grisly night
Closing the day's sepulchral light


The vision's spell had deepened o'er me
Its lands its scenes were spread before me
In one short hour a hundred homes
Had roofed me with their lordly domes
And I had sat by fires whose light
Flashed wide o'er halls of regal height
And I had seen those come & go
Whose forms gave radiance to the glow
And I had heard the matted floor
Of ante-room & corridor
Shake to some half-remembered tread
Whose haughty firmness woke even dread
As through the curtained portal strode
Some spurred & fur-wrapped Demi-God
Whose ride through that tempestuous night
Had added somewhat of a frown
To brow's that shadowed eyes of light
Fit to flash fire from Scythian crown
Till sweet salute from lady gay
Chased that unconscious scowl away
And then the savage fur-cap doffed
The Georgian mantle laid aside
The satrap stretched on cushion soft
His lov'd & chosen by his side
That hand that in its horseman's glove
Looked fit for nought but bridle rein
Caresses now its lady-love
With fingers white that shew no stain
They got in hot & jarring strife
When hate or honour warred with life
Nought redder than the roseate ring
That glitters fit for Eastern King






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