Classic Poem

Back to the Place of Dreams I came, where I was young so long —
An old house in the sunset's flame, the great sea's crooning song.

And there upon the dunes one stood who gave no heed to me,
A slender slip of maidenhood between the sun and sea.

The sea wind on her gypsy face, the sea spray on her hair,
For all I shared the selfsame place she did not heed me there.

Only upon the sand-dunes high she stood as one who sees
Between the blue of sea and sky his outbound argosies,

And dares to dream of their return with treasures manifold,
With strange, great gems that flash and burn and cloth of vair and gold.

Ah! Well she did not guess at all, the loss that shipwreck seems,
Or know what havoc would befall her fragile fleet of dreams.

But I — I turned and left her there; she did not see me go —
A dreaming girl with wind-tossed hair that once I used to know.

Oh, little ghost, dream on content; not yours life's wreck and wrong.
Out from the Place of Dreams I went where I was young so long.