Excerpt from Undine: A Dream Play in Three Acts
Do you remember, love, when once I dreamed,
In a rose sunset by a rosy sea,
While o"er our heads the changing colours gleamed, -
Of all that human life, well-lived, might be?
You laughed. I think I hear your laughter rend
The sweet illusion of a future age:
It was not thus, you said, that "that great end,"
Which we all strive for, "dawns on history"s page"!
No, "life is earnest, life is real," you
Had proved it so by many a dreary act;
And dreams were valueless, and only true
"Dry, hard, experimental, actual fact."
Dear, fond, prosaic babbler! Yet you knew
The thousand unrehearsed effects of morn,
In twilight grey the inimitable hue,
In midnight black the mystery forlorn.
You saw the golden glory of the flower,
You saw the pageantry of heath and tree;
What are they? Visions of a dreaming hour,
Brain-pictures, deftly wrought by you and me.
Who paints the rosy tints of sky and sea?
Whose is the rapture that the poet dreams?
What is the true save what we think to be?
What is the real other than what seems?
W. L. C.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Undine (W. L. Courtney)