William Baxter Dreams (1844)

 

T H E   L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .
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CINCINNATI, MAY, 1844.

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O r i g i n a l .
D R E A M S .
BY WILLIAM BAXTER.
YE come, O! ye bright and ye beautiful band,
    To wake up pure thoughts in the heart;
From the place where ye dwell, in the shadowy land,
    Ye come but as quickly depart.
Like the soft breath of even, ye steal o'er the soul,
And ye tread all the mazes which thought can control.

Ye come, beauteous visions, as light as the air,
    As soft and as silent as sleep,
And smiles linger too on the cheek of despair,
    The mourner e'en ceases to weep,
When the scenes which ye wake burst at once on the view,
And the hopes of the future all pass in review.

Ye banish all sorrows, ye dry all our tears,
    Ye bury all thoughts of the past,
And hush to repose all the promptings of fear,
    But die as a voice on the blast.
O, ye came, yet like phantoms, ye bright, happy throng,
And the music of spirits was heard in your song.

Ye came on the moonbeams; the voice of the streams
    Such music as yours can supply:
For words such as those that we hear in our dreams,
    The children of fancy, soon die;
And those sounds seem to flow from that long sought for strand,
Which we oft call our home, in the bright spirit-land.

Sleep's blissful companions, how oft have I seen
    Your forms with the spirit's own eye,
While treading the halls of my thoughts, you have been
    Like beings too lovely to die;
And I've thought in such moments my spirit was free,
And beheld the bright land where its home soon shall be.

 

[The Ladies' Repository 4 (May 1844): 135.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "Dreams" was first published in The Ladies' Repository, and Gatherings of the West: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 4, No. 5, May 1844, p. 135. This volume, edited by E. Thomson, was published in Cincinnati by L. Swormstedt and J. T. Mitchell for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 5 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.

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