The Dream Of Christ.

I saw her twins of eyelids listless swoon          Mesmeric eyes,     Like the mild lapsing of a lulling tune          On wide surprise,     While slow the graceful presence of a moon          Mellowed the purple skies.     And had she dreamed or had in fancy gone          As one who sought     To hail the influx of a godly dawn          Of heavenly thought,     Trod trembling o'er old sainted hill and lawn          With intense angels fraught?     Sailed thro' majestic domes of the deep night          By isles of stars,     Wand'ring like some pure blessing warm with light          From worldly jars     To the high halls of morning, pearly white,          And heaped with golden bars.     Past temples vast, deluged with sandy seas,          Whose ruins stand     Like bleaching bones of dead monstrosities          Crashed to the land,     Stupendous homes of cursed idolatries          Fallen to dust and sand.     Ugly and bestial gods caked thick with gold -          Their hideousness     Blaspheming Christ - 'mid shattered altars rolled          To rottenness,     Their slaves abolished and their priests of old          Trodden to nothingness.     Thro' Syrian plains curtained with curling mist          The grass she trailed,     Where the shy floweret; by the dew-drop kissed,          Sweet blushing quailed;     And drowned in purple vales of amethyst          The moon-mad bulbuls wailed.     On glimmering wolds had seemed to hear the bleat          Of folded flocks;     Seen broad-browed sages pass with sandaled feet          And hoary locks,     While swimming in a bath of molten heat          A great star glorious rocks.     In fancy o'er a beaming baby bent -          Cradled amiss     In a rude manger - on its brow to print          One holy kiss,     While down the slant winds faint aromas went          And anthems deep of bliss....     And then she woke. The winter moon above          Burst on her sight;     And with strange sweetness all her dream was wove          In its far flight,     For jubilant bells rocked booming "peace and love"          Down all the aisles of night.