DREAMS
Like beams of light to darkness,
Is fancy, to the real;
Lifting the down-cast spirit
Unto its high ideal.
Dreamers are all about us,
On mountain or by sea,
And had we no such visions,
Less bright this world would be.
The aged man is dreaming
Of merry boyhood days;
Of favorite haunts, and schoolmates,
And of their wonted plays.
His life was then all sunshine,
He roamed about at will;
And years passed on as smoothly,
As glides a laughing rill.
But time has brought her burdens
Of mingled pain and care;
They’ve bent his manly figure,
And silvered o’er his hair.
Stately is now his bearing,
He breathes a freer air;
Then call him not from dreamland,
For he is happy there.
He now beholds the Heavenly,
The dear ones gone before;
No more are they divided,
But with him, as of yore.
O, may such glorious visions
Oft to his spirit come;
For, surely, they are gateways
Unto that “Heavenly Home.”
The future to the youthful
Diffuses brightest beams;
All wants and wishes granted,
In golden future dreams.