A DREAM OF THE FUTURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 150, 17 March 1876, Page 6

A DREAM OF THE FUTURE.

BY D. F. M'OABTHT.

I dreamt a dream, a dazzling dream, of a green isle far away, Where the glowing west to the ocean's breast calleth the dying day ; And that island green was as fair a scene as ever man's eye did see. With its chieftains bold, and its temples old, and its homes and its altars free ! Nor foreign foe did that green isle know— no stranger band it bore, Pave the merchant train from sunny Spain, and from Afric's golden snore • And the young man's heart would fondly start, and the old man's eve would smile, J As their thoughts would roam o'er the ocean foam to that lone and holy isle! Years passed by, and the orient sky blazed with a new-born light, And Bethlehem s star shone bright afar o'er the lost world's darksome night ; And o?j o a v am ° nd ShrineS from P lunder ed mines, and the golden fanes Melted away in the blaze of day at the simple spell-word Love! A^ fi Ser6n^ er , that iß ! a ? d green P la y ed with its sa ™g beams, And the fires of Ba&l waxed dim and pale like the stars of the morning streams ! And '53? 3 ' oy *° bear> in the brighfc air clear> from oufc each 6unn y The tinkling bell, from the quiet cell, or the cloister's tranquil shade! A cloud of night;o'er that dream so bright soon with its dark wine came, b And the happy scene of that island green was lost in blood and shame ; For its kings unjust betrayed their trust, and its queens, through fair W6F© IWlll"*"And the I°aiee-r1 °aie e - r fr ° m & dißtant knd> Wlth their war - hoo P 8 filled A fatal spell on that green isle fell-a shadow of death and gloom Passed withering o cr, from shore to shore, like the breath of the foul simoom ; And each green hill's side waa crimson dyed, and each stream rolled red and wild, With the mingled^blood of the brave and good— of mother and maid and child ! I)Mrk bIS nT^broke' th ° Ugh """^ & gleam ° f h ° pe tbrou g h tLat Like a star's bright form through." a whistling storm, or the moon through a midnight oak ! And many a time, with its wings sublime, and with its saffron lioht, nf hti m ° rmng " Se °" the eastern ekie8 > but t0 ™n»k again in For, in abject piayer, the people there still raised their fettered hands, When the sense ot right and the power to smite are the spirit that commands ; *■ For those who would sneer at the>ourner's tear, and heed not the suppliant's sigh, Would bow in awe to that first great law— a banded nation's cry ! At length arose o'er that isle of woes a dawn with a steadier smile And in happy hour a voice of power awoke the slumbering Isle ! And the people all obeyed the call of their chief's unsceptred hand, Vowing to raise, as in ancient days, the name of their own dear land ! My dream grew bright as the sunbeam's light, as I watched that Isle's career Through the varied scene and the joys serene of many a future yearAnd, oh ! what thrill did my bosom fill, as I gazed on a pillared pile Where a senate once more in power watched o'er the rights of that lone green Isle J 6