I WALKED beside the evening sea,
And dreamed a dream that could not be;
The waves that plunged along the shore
Said only — " Dreamer, dream no more! "

But still the legions charged the beach;
Loud rang their battle-cry, like speech;
But changed was the imperial strain:
It murmured — " Dreamer, dream again! "

I homeward turned from out the gloom, —
That sound I heard not in my room;
But suddenly a sound, that stirred
Within my very breast, I heard.

It was my heart, that like a sea
Within my breast beat ceaselessly:
But like the waves along the shore,
It said — " Dream on! " and " Dream no more! "