DREAM LOVES
-BY-
H. T. ECKERT,
SUNBURY, PA.
TO THE PUBLIC.
In placing this volume before you I am aware of the prejudice against all unknown writers, and especially verse writers. Critics glibly ask, “Who stuffed that white owl ? ’ ’
The barber keeps on shaving, and the poetic taxidermist keeps on stuffing, and the good-natured public has to endure barber, poet, “white owl’’ and “critic,’’ accepting evils they know, rather than fly to those they know not of.
If in “ Dream Loves’’ a line or a word causes the heart to throb kindly for the joys, or the eye to dim for the misfortunes of others, its mission is fulfilled, and the author is well repaid for his effort.
I dedicate these verses to the memory of My Mother, with a love that the barriers of the grave and long years have never dimmed.
H. T. Eckert.
DREAM LOVES.
I DREAMED a dream. I sailed a mystic a sea,
O'er waters clear as crystal well could be, With white-shelled bottom, gem-like strewn among
Bright coral branches, over which I hung.
I floated on, by spicy zephyrs fanned, Drifting in sweet abandon far from land; The receding shores behind in beauty spread, And blue ethereal heavens stretched overhead.
Soft murmuring music rippled ’round the prow;
The balmy breezes kissed my grateful brow, A blissful languor o’er my senses crept, And as I dreamed, in dreams I slept.
Out, out I drifted on this unknown sea, Dancing on silver-mirrored waters free, Into a world of beauty; wide and wider grew This realm, while shores receded from my view.
Bright golden days and nights of silver sheen ;
Blue heavens above—beneath unfathomed green;
No thought of care, no trouble crossed my breast;
My bark danced onward to the fabled west.
The beauteous day sunk into evening’s arms, Blending soft twilight with its fading charms. ’Twas but a span from close to peep of day, When in the east night’s curtains fell away.
Day dawned, bright day, then faded as it came ; Morn streaked with gold, eve dyed with crimson flame;
Day followed evening, evening followed dawn ; Bliss followed languor—still I drifted on.
Now on the horizon slow tracing into blue, Out of the silver waters faintly grew Bowers of beauty, girt with golden sand, Leagues to the west a goodly favored land.
At dawn, before me in a shimmering haze;
At noon, entranced, I rest my raptured gaze On sea-girt shores enframed by silver spray, And crowned by beauty of a perfect day.
And drifting land-ward, idly drifting o’er Shell-tinted dancing waves, I reach the shore. Cleaving the feathery’ surf that I round me swept
In misty foam, in dreams again I slept.
I dreamed I ’woke within a sylvan glade, And hovering near me was a winsome maid. Fair as th’ morning modestly she stood, Shame-faced, bright-haired—a creature of the wood.
Entranced I gazed. She bowed her regal head.
To speak I then essayed—my speech had fled.
With master hand she waked the silent strings,
As bending o’er her Inte she sweetly sings :
SONG.
“Thou’rt welcome, sweet youth, to my isle in the sea,
Where storms never beat on the shore,
And the mocking-bird sings in the wild orange tree;
Oh, stay with me! stay evermore.
"Where grapes cluster ripe and the pomegranate grows;
Where myrtle and ivy entwine
Their branches, and cling to the wild crimson rose;
Oh, stay in this bower of mine I
“I’ll sing when the moon gilds the crest of the sea;
With th’ nightingale sweetly I’ll sing.
Oh, come to my bower, sweet youth, come with me,
Where time flies on gold-tinted wing.
“No care shall pursue thee nor sorrow e’er fall,
No cloud dim the light of the day ;
Love’s soft silken fetters thy soul shall enthrall ;
Oh, stay with me! stay, ever stay!”
Her welcome o’er, she lead; I followed on.
One lingering look I cast—my bark was gone ;
Riding the silvery waves it idly danced.
On, on I followed, on I went entranced.
“We reached a wooded park where mild-eyed deer gazed in mute wonder.”
The murmuring sea was lost upon my ear;
We reached a wooded park, where mild-eyed deer
Gazed in mute wonder, came, returned and stood,
Antlered and strong, between us and the wood.
Delicious perfume crimson rose distilled,
And songs of tropic birds my senses filled;
But neither song of bird nor balmy air
Could with the maiden’s breath or song compare.
We wandered hand in hand by laughing rill,
And gather’d berries red beside the hill;
From milk-white blossoms, twined with myrtle green,
I wove a coronet, and crowned my queen.
Days passed unheeded—gliding golden days,
Followed b}T nights illumed by silver rays;
We quaffed the crystal cool from Nature’s rills
And gathered purple grapes among the hills.
No care we knew; the hours sped on apace,
With rainbow tints, and crowned with rainbow grace.
At noon in bower, at eve on velvet lawn,
Bird-like we sported as the days drave on.
Days, months, and fleeting years dissolved in time,
And we lived on, our lives a measured rhyme
That knew no discord—like the rill that sung
A silvery song its flower-decked banks among.
Often, when light was fading o’er the sea,
And lengthening shades stretched o’er the emerald lea,
There, at her feet, in languid bliss, I lay
Listening to songs that charmed the hours away.
SONG.
“When o’er the moon-lit sea,
Stretching away,
Rides the fair silver queen,
Chasing the day
Into the shades of night,
Casting a mellow light
Over the bay,—
“Here, by my side, recline;
Here is thy home;
I will be ever thine—
Never more roam.
Stay in this peaceful vale,
Where sorrows ne’er assail Nor troubles come.”
And thus she touched the lute and sweetly sang to me,
Beneath a moon-lit sky, beside a moon-lit sea;
While resting at her feet, bathing in Cynthia’s beams,
I drifted into chaos—drifted into dreams.
I ’woke benumbed ; the ideal life had changed.
Beside an angry sea was cliff on cliff arrang’d,
And shrieking gulls, with noisy, flapping wings,
Above; around me, nameless, horrid things.
My dream was o’er; around me closed the night;
The leaden day had fled, and with it fled the light.
Alone I wandered on a rocky shore—
Alone I listened to the breaker’s roar.
’Tis thus in life. When young we sail a sea
Of crystal, calm as summer, ever free;
But age conies on,—our dream of bliss is gone,
And on th’ barren shore we end our days alone!