DREAM – LIFE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 12, 12 July 1889, Page 13

DREAM - LIFE.

Maby A. Fokd (Una). Human hearts are ever striving, Ever planning and contriving, Grasping at the glowing visions O'er which fancy's pinions wave ; Whether joys or woes surround us, Still our thoughts will Btray beyond üb, For we are a race of dreamers From the cradle to the grave. When with buoyant step glad childhood Gayly roams througo vale and wildwood, Sconi s still brighter seem to wait him Where his coming youth appears ; For the rosy glow of distance Holds a fanciful existence, And a robe of gorgeous beauty Flutters round tne future years. Youth arrives and still he glances Onward onward fur he fancies That his hand will soon be potent As the magic lamp of old ; And he builds an airy palace In which pleasure's glowing chalice May be freely quaffed when manhood Has the scroll of time unrolled. But at last his lordly castle Vanishes with serf and vassal ; To the eye grown older, sterner, Life presents a darker page ; All his rosy hopes are faded, All his days with clouds are shaded, And he trustfully looks forward To the calm repose of age. Now the snows of years, descending On his brow, foretell the ending Of his earthly joys and trials, Yet in vain he seeks for rest. To the time no more returning, Back be looks with wistful yearning, Then Hope guides his vision upward To the mansions of the blest. Thus in dreams we wander ever, Living in the present never, But with longing eye still turning To the future or the past ; Till cur heart-strings chill and shiver, As the waves of death's cold river Put an end to all our dreaming, And the changeless comes at last. May we strive to grasp the real, While we picture the ideal, And the while the brain is dreamiDg. Toil with strong, determined hand ; Vain are visions blight with beauty. If we shrink from earnest duty, For the thoughts that rouse not action Are but letters traced on sand. — New York Freeman' g Journal.