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1864–1900

NOCTURNE: IN ANJOU.

Richard Hovey

I dreamed of Sappho on a summer night. Her nightingales were singing in the trees Beside the castled river; and the wind Fell like a woman's fingers on my cheek.

And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change; The night went on with me into my dream. This only I remember, that I cried: “O Sappho! ere I leave this paradise,

Sing me one song of those lost books of yours For which we poets still go sorrowing; That when I meet my fellows on the earth I may rejoice them more than many pearls;”

And she, the sweetly smiling, answered me, As one who dreams, “I have forgotten them.”

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NOCTURNE: IN ANJOU. · Richard Hovey · Poetry Cove