Dream Road

I took the road again last night     On which my boyhood's hills look down;     The old road leading from the town,     The village there below the height,     Its cottage homes, all huddled brown,     Each with its blur of light.     The old road, full of ruts, that leads,     A winding streak of limestone-grey,     Over the hills and far away;     That's crowded here by arms of weeds     And elbows of railfence, asway     With flowers that no one heeds:     That's dungeoned here by rocks and trees     And maundered to by waters; there     Lifted into the free wild air     Of meadow-land serenities:     The old road, stretching far and fair     To where my tired heart sees.     That says, "Come, take me for a mile;     And let me show you mysteries:     The things the yellow moon there sees,     And those few stars that 'round her smile:     Come, take me, now you are at ease,     And walk with me a while."     And I I took it at its word:     And friendships, clothed in olden guise,     Walked with me; and, as I surmise,     Old dreams for twenty years unheard;     And love, who gazed into my eyes     As once when youth adored.     And voices, vocal silences;     And visions, that my youth had seen,     Slipped from each side, in silvery green,     And spoke to me in memories;     And recollections smiled between     My tear-wet face and trees.     Enchantment walked by field and farm,     And whispered me on either side;     And where the fallows broadened wide     Dim mystery waved a moon-white arm,     Or, from the woodland, moonbeam-eyed,     Beckoned a filmy form.     Spirits of wind and starlight wove     From fern to fern a drowsy dance;     Or o'er the wood-stream hung a-trance:     And from the leaves, that dreamed above,     The elfin-dew dropped many a lance     Of light and, glimmering, drove.     Star-arrows through the warmth and musk,     That sparkled on the moss and loam,     And shook from bells of wildflower foam     The bee-like music of the dusk,     And rimmed with spars the lily's dome     And morning-glory's tusk.     And, soft as cobwebs, I beheld     The moths, they say that fairies use     As coursers, come by ones and twos     From stables of the blossoms belled:     While busily, among the dews,     Where croaked the toad and swelled,     The nimble spider climbed his thread,     Or diagramed a dim design,     Or flung, above, a slender line     To launder dews on. Overhead     An insect drew its dagger fine     And stabbed the stillness dead.     And there! far at the lane's dark end,     A light showed, like a glow-worm lamp:     And through the darkness, summer-damp,     An old rose-garden seemed to send     Sweet word to me as of a camp     Of dreams around the bend.     And there a gate! whereat, mid deeps     Of honeysuckle dewiness,     She stood whose lips were mine to press     How long ago! for whom still leaps     My heart with longing and, no less,     With passion here that sleeps.     The smiling face of girlhood; eyes     Of wine-warm brown; and heavy hair,     Auburn as autumn in his lair,     Took me again with swift surprise,     As oft they took me, coming there     In days of bygone ties.     The cricket and the katydid     Pierced silence with their stinging sounds;     The firefly went its golden rounds,     Where, lifting slow one sleepy lid,     The baby rosebud dreamed; and mounds     Of lilies breathed half-hid.     The white moon waded through a cloud,     Like some pale woman through a pool:     And in the darkness, close and cool     I felt a form against me bowed,     Her breast to mine; and deep and full     Her maiden heart beat loud.     I never dreamed it was a trick     That fancy played me; memory     And moonlight.... Yet, it well may be     The old road, too, that night was quick     With dreams that were reality     To every stone and stick.     For instantly when, overhead,     The moon swam there! where soft had gleamed     That vision, now no creature seemed     Only a ruined house and shed.     Was it a dream the old road dreamed?     Or I of her long dead?