A Dream

Once in a dream(for once I dreamed of you),

We stood together in an open field

Above our hands two swifted-wings pigeons wheeled,

Sporting at ease and courting full in view.

When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,

Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed;

Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield;

So farewell life and love and pleasures new.

Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,

Their snow-white plumge flecked with crimson drops,

I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep:

But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow tops

Bend in a wind which bore to me a sound

Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sleep.

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