free-verse37 lines

Visions.

"She was a phantom," &c.

In lone Glenartney's thickets lies couched the lordly stag,

The dreaming terrier's tail forgets its customary wag;

And plodding ploughmen's weary steps insensibly grow quicker,

As broadening casements light them on towards home, or home-brewed liquor.

It is (in fact) the evening - that pure and pleasant time,

When stars break into splendour, and poets into rhyme;

When in the glass of Memory the forms of loved ones shine -

And when, of course, Miss Goodchild's is prominent in mine.

Miss Goodchild! - Julia Goodchild! - how graciously you smiled

Upon my childish passion once, yourself a fair-haired child:

When I was (no doubt) profiting by Dr. Crabb's instruction,

And sent those streaky lollipops home for your fairy suction!

"She wore" her natural "roses, the night when first we met" -

Her golden hair was gleaming 'neath the coercive net:

"Her brow was like the snawdrift," her step was like Queen Mab's,

And gone was instantly the heart of every boy at Crabb's.

The parlour-boarder chasseed tow'rds her on graceful limb;

The onyx decked his bosom - but her smiles were not for him:

With ME she danced - till drowsily her eyes "began to blink,"

And I brought raisin wine, and said, "Drink, pretty creature, drink!"

And evermore, when winter comes in his garb of snows,

And the returning schoolboy is told how fast he grows;

Shall I - with that soft hand in mine - enact ideal Lancers,

And dream I hear demure remarks, and make impassioned answers:-

I know that never, never may her love for me return -

At night I muse upon the fact with undisguised concern -

But ever shall I bless that day: (I don't bless, as a rule,

The days I spent at "Dr. Crabb's Preparatory School.")

And yet - we two MAY meet again - (Be still, my throbbing heart!) -

Now rolling years have weaned us from jam and raspberry tart:-

One night I saw a vision - 'Twas when musk-roses bloom

I stood - WE stood - upon a rug, in a sumptuous dining-room:

One hand clasped hers - one easily reposed upon my hip -

And "BLESS YE!" burst abruptly from Mr. Goodchild's lip:

I raised my brimming eye, and saw in hers an answering gleam -

My heart beat wildly - and I woke, and lo! it was a dream.