IF there were dreams to sell, What would you buy? Some cost a passing bell; Some a light sigh, That shakes from Life's fresh crown Only a rose-leaf down. If there were dreams to sell, Merry and sad to tell, And the crier rang the bell, What would you buy? A cottage lone and still, With bowers nigh, Shadowy, my woes to still, Until I die. Such pearl from Life's fresh crown Fain would I shake me down. Were dreams to have at will, This would best heal my ill, This would I buy. But there were dreams to sell Ill didst thou buy; Life is a dream, they tell, Waking, to die. Dreaming a dream to prize, In wishing ghosts to rise; And, if I had the spell To call the buried well, Which one would I? If there are ghosts to raise, What shall I call,. Out of hell's murky haze, Heaven's blue pall? Raise my loved long-lost boy To lead me to his joy. -- There are no ghosts to raise; Out of death lead no ways; Vain is the call. Know'st thou not ghosts to sue? No love thou hast. Else lie, as I will do. And breathe thy last. So out of Life's fresh crown Fall like a rose-leaf down. Thus are the ghosts to woo; Thus are all dreams made true, Ever to last! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WOMAN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CHILD MARGARET by CARL SANDBURG THE RUINS OF CORINTH by ANTIPATER OF SIDON MUSIC OF NATURE by E. JUSTINE BAYARD RUSTIC WREATH by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN AWAKENING by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE EXTRACTS FROM NEW-YEAR'S VERSES FOR 1825 by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |