free-verse16 lines
In Sleep
by Alice Christiana Gertrude Thompson MeynellI dreamt (no "dream" awake-a dream indeed)
A wrathful man was talking in the park:
"Where are the Higher Powers, who know our need
And leave us in the dark?
"There are no Higher Powers; there is no heart
In God, no love"-his oratory here,
Taking the paupers' and the cripples' part,
Was broken by a tear.
And then it seemed that One who did create
Compassion, who alone invented pity,
Walked, as though called, in at that north-east gate,
Out from the muttering city;
Threaded the little crowd, trod the brown grass,
Bent o'er the speaker close, saw the tear rise,
And saw Himself, as one looks in a glass,
In those impassioned eyes.