THEODORE ARNOLD HAULTAIN

ONLY in dreams she appears to me, In dreams of the earth, and the sky, and the sea; In the scent of the rose, the breath of the spring, The cloud of the summer, glistening; In the sound of an orient forest dim, Scarce heard far off on ocean's rim By wondering traveller who descries Naught of all its mysteries; In the wash of the wave, the sigh of the sea, The laughter of leaves on the wind-tossed tree. Her hair is the dusk of an autumn night, Her brow the moonbeam's pallid light, Her voice is the voice of the wind and the wave, When the breeze blows low and the ripples lave The feet of a wooded mountain hoar Rising on southern storied shore. The breath from between her hallowed lips Is the breath exhaled from a rose that sips The dew on a lucid April day, Soft as the spring, as summer gay. In the flush of the early morning mist, Which the fervid sun has barely kissed, Far down in the balmy-breathing dale, I get a glimpse of her flimsy veil. In the glow of the lurid sunset hue I see the robe which her limbs shine through. On the grass-blade wet I see the tears Her eyes have shed for our hopes and fears. Her eyes ... her eyes ... the infinite deeps Of the holiest heavens where God He keeps All that is beautiful, good, and true— Her eyes are the infinite heaven's blue, Gazing in sad serenity On restless, frail humanity. On softly-breathing evening still, Alone, where the whispering wayward rill To the love-sick leaves, which gently dip Low down to kiss it, lip to lip, Tells secrets strange of love and pain, Which the leaves lisp back to it again,— Ah! then I dream that my love comes nigh, And think that I hear her softly sigh. Or when, on a windy summer day, (The golden sunshine-gleam on the bay) To me, ensconced far out on the high And rocky weed-strewn promontory, Come multitudinous sights and sounds— The rush of the boisterous wave which bounds Far up the cliff, the sea-bird's call, The flying spume, the cloudlets small That dance through the ether hand in hand— The joy suffused o'er the sea and the land,— Then, too, I dream that my love is near, And think that I catch her laughter clear. Only in dreams she appears to me, In dreams of the earth, and the sky, and the sea.