Classic Poem

" I know such dreams are empty, vain:
And yet may rest upon the heart,
Like chillness of a summer rain
After the clouds depart.

" And still the dream went on: — each hour
Some new-born wonder filled the dream: —
First came the labourers to o'erpower
And chain our little stream.

" A giant prison-wall they made; —
Our brook, recoiling in her fears,
Over our meadows wildly strayed,
And drowned them with her tears.

" And then they reared a stately home, —
Not one, but many, for this queen;
The gleam of tower and spire and dome
Through all the land was seen.

" And when her orgies swelled the breeze,
Loudly a mile away or more
Was borne the voice of her reveiries,
The rattle and the roar.