IN DREAMLAND, a poem

IN dreamland is a castle fair
     Wherein my love doth dwell:
Its turrets waver into air
     From fields where asphodel
And poppy keep not watch, but sleep,
     'Neath an enchanter's spell.

Pale offspring of a starlit sky,
     One rose—for need like mine—
Has over-climbed the ivies high,
     About her sill to twine,
And there, abloom, with rare perfume
     Makes exquisite her shrine.

Still, night by night, the wondrous bird
     That ne'er is heard by day,
Thrills, with my heart's unspoken word,
     Those mystic turrets gray,
And heavened above, sings to my love
     His plaintive roundelay.

Ah, would that I, through tender gloom
     Upmounting, lover-wise,
Might find her in the fragrant room,—
     Her virgin Paradise,—
But for one night behold the light
     Beam in her charmèd eyes!

Alas! I shall nor lead her down
     The steep and skyey stair,
Nor find her here in the dull town,
     The sunlight on her hair,—
Yet, could we meet, my heart would greet
     And know her anywhere!

"In Dreamland" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Harper's Bazar (March 1913), The Unconquered Air (1912) and Poems (1916) Volume II.