" I dreamed a weary way I had to go
Alone, across an unknown land — such wastes
We sometimes see in visions of the night,
Barren and dimly lighted. There was not
A tree in sight, save one seared leafless trunk,
Like a rude cross; and scattered here and there,
A shrivelled thistle grew. The grass was dead,
And the starved soil glared through its scanty tufts
In bare and chalky patches, cracked and hot,
Chafing my tired feet, that caught upon
Its parched surface. For a thirsty sun
Had sucked all moisture from the ground it burned,
And red and glowing, stared upon me like
A furnace-eye, when all the flame is spent.
" I felt it was a dream; and so I tried
To close my eyes, and shut it out from sight.
Then sitting down, I hid my face; but this
Only increased the dread; and so I gazed
With open eyes into my dream again.
The mists had thickened, and had grown quite black
Over the sun; and darkness closed round me.
(Thy Father said it thundered towards the morn.)
But soon, far off, I saw a dull green light
Break through the clouds, which fell across the earth
Like death upon a bad man's upturned face.
Sudden it burst with fifty forked darts
In one white flash, so dazzling bright it seemed
To hide the landscape in one blaze of light.
When the loud crash that came down with it had
Rolled its long echo into stillness, through
The calm dark silence came a plaintive sound;
And, looking towards the tree, I saw that it
Was scorched with the lightning; and there stood,
Close to its foot, a solitary sheep,
Bleating upon the edge of a deep pit,
Unseen till now, choked up with briars and thorns:
And into this a little snow-white lamb,
Like to thine own, had fallen. It was dead
And cold, and must have lain there very long;
While all the time, the mother had stood by,
Helpless, and moaning with a piteous bleat.
The lamb had struggled much to free itself,
For many cruel thorns had torn its head
And bleeding feet; and one had pierced its side,
From which flowed blood and water. Strange the things
We see in dreams, and hard to understand —
For stooping down to raise its lifeless head,
I thought it changed into the quiet face
Of my own Child.
" Then I awoke, and saw
The dim moon shining through the watery clouds
On thee awake, within thy little bed."
Alone, across an unknown land — such wastes
We sometimes see in visions of the night,
Barren and dimly lighted. There was not
A tree in sight, save one seared leafless trunk,
Like a rude cross; and scattered here and there,
A shrivelled thistle grew. The grass was dead,
And the starved soil glared through its scanty tufts
In bare and chalky patches, cracked and hot,
Chafing my tired feet, that caught upon
Its parched surface. For a thirsty sun
Had sucked all moisture from the ground it burned,
And red and glowing, stared upon me like
A furnace-eye, when all the flame is spent.
" I felt it was a dream; and so I tried
To close my eyes, and shut it out from sight.
Then sitting down, I hid my face; but this
Only increased the dread; and so I gazed
With open eyes into my dream again.
The mists had thickened, and had grown quite black
Over the sun; and darkness closed round me.
(Thy Father said it thundered towards the morn.)
But soon, far off, I saw a dull green light
Break through the clouds, which fell across the earth
Like death upon a bad man's upturned face.
Sudden it burst with fifty forked darts
In one white flash, so dazzling bright it seemed
To hide the landscape in one blaze of light.
When the loud crash that came down with it had
Rolled its long echo into stillness, through
The calm dark silence came a plaintive sound;
And, looking towards the tree, I saw that it
Was scorched with the lightning; and there stood,
Close to its foot, a solitary sheep,
Bleating upon the edge of a deep pit,
Unseen till now, choked up with briars and thorns:
And into this a little snow-white lamb,
Like to thine own, had fallen. It was dead
And cold, and must have lain there very long;
While all the time, the mother had stood by,
Helpless, and moaning with a piteous bleat.
The lamb had struggled much to free itself,
For many cruel thorns had torn its head
And bleeding feet; and one had pierced its side,
From which flowed blood and water. Strange the things
We see in dreams, and hard to understand —
For stooping down to raise its lifeless head,
I thought it changed into the quiet face
Of my own Child.
" Then I awoke, and saw
The dim moon shining through the watery clouds
On thee awake, within thy little bed."