Sweet Dreams [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]

Sweet Dreams

In dreams, when loving spirits meet,
Grief makes the life we live more sweet
On memory’s golden wing.
Some changeless scene, in nobler power,
Gleams ’neath the shade of sorrow’s hour
Unconscious of its sting ;
And rays, sweet rays of pleasure cheer,
And compensate for sorrow’s tear.

Just as the lightning’s vivid gleam
At midnight lends a golden beam
Revealing many a flower ;
Bright tints of loveliness display
Sweet joys in each, a mingling ray
Of beauty in its power.
Bright smiles on fleeting glances brought
In dreams by fondest Fancy wrought.

Sydney, June 6, 1871.

Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor). Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, William Clowes and Sons, London, 1901, page 85