The Question.

1.     I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,     Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,     And gentle odours led my steps astray,     Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring     Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay     Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling     Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,     But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.     2.     There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,     Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth,     The constellated flower that never sets;     Faint oxslips; tender bluebells, at whose birth     The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets -     Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth -     Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears,     When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.     3.     And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,     Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may,     And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine     Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day;     And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,     With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;     And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,     Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.     4.     And nearer to the river's trembling edge     There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white.     And starry river buds among the sedge,     And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,     Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge     With moonlight beams of their own watery light;     And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green     As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.     5.     Methought that of these visionary flowers     I made a nosegay, bound in such a way     That the same hues, which in their natural bowers     Were mingled or opposed, the like array     Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours     Within my hand, - and then, elate and gay,     I hastened to the spot whence I had come,     That I might there present it! - Oh! to whom?