"Dream-Time"


Dream-Time

It is the time when crimson stars 
Weary of heaven’s cold delight, 
And take, like petals from a rose, 
Their soft and hesitating flight 
Upon the cool wings of the air 
Across the purple night. 

It is the time when silver sails 
Go drifting down the violet sea, 
And every poppy’s crimson mouth 
Kisses to sleep a lovesick bee; 
The fireweed waves her rosy plumes 
On pasture, hill and lea. 

It is the time to dream―and feel 
The lanquid rocking of a boat, 
The pushing ripple round the keel 
Where cool, deep-hearted lilies float, 
And hear thro’ wild syringas steal 
Some songster’s drowsy note. 

It is the time, at eve, to lie 
And in a hammock faintly sway, 
To watch the golds and crimsons die 
Across the blue stretch of the bay; 
To hear the sweet dusk tiptoe by  
In the footsteps of the day. 




"Dream-Time" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).

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