Three Dreams [poem by Menie Parkes]

[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]

Three Dreams.

I have dreamed of Fame, and the dream was fair:
I have pictured my forehead crowned
With the laurel-praise of earth’s noblest and rare,
Who the honored of men may be found,
And I felt that I stood, in my crude ideal,
Greater than those in the acts they had done;
Have felt that — if life were but mine — would be real
The dreams that were yet but begun;
And that bounding and fluttering mirage of pleasure
Was lovely, enchanting — a life-blessing treasure.

I have dreamed of Love with a sobbing soul,
Throbbing within to meet the thought,
Have dreamed of a quiet and constant control
Me ruling with sweet love, love-sought;
Have dreamed of trusting in calm repose,
Or, lulled in a tremulous joy,
Have felt that no sorrow, no whirlwind of woes
My one greatest bliss could destroy;
And this dream of Love was sweeter and purer than Fame,
And brought holier stillness and truth when it came.

I have dreamed of Death, and my heart was still —
Forgetting the withering veins —
And my ear has listened, half catching the thrill
Of Heaven’s adoring strains;
And my eye has piercéd the dark Intense,
And visioned the golden gate;
And my soul has left my earth-form in a trance,
And risen on wings elate;
And thus, while I dreamed with a painful and near­parting breath,
Oh, fairer than Fame, and dearer than Love, was that dream of Death.

Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], pages 64-65