BESIDE A PLEASANT SHORE, a poem

I LAY upon my narrow bed,
     And dreamed life's happy moments o'er;
I thought that love my footsteps led
     Beside a pleasant shore.

Care for a moment loosed its grasp,
     And breathing deep the fragrant brine,—
My hand locked in my lover's clasp,—
     I felt his pulses throb with mine;

And dear contentment seemed my right,—
     There roaming from the world apart;
I saw his eyes, I felt their light
     Beam through the shadows, in my heart;

And waves, and trees—all nature—sang
     A pæan by that pleasant shore.
Then I awoke, and with a pang
     Remembered that we loved no more.

"Beside a Pleasant Shore" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Lyrics of Life (1909) and Poems (1916) Volume II.