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1865–1914

A DREAM SHAPE

Madison Julius Cawein

With moon-white hearts that held a gleam I gathered wild-flowers in a dream, And shaped a woman, whose sweet blood Was odour of the wildwood bud.

From dew, the starlight arrowed through, I wrought a woman's eyes of blue; The lids that on her eyeballs lay, Were rose-pale petals of the May.

Out of a rosebud's veins I drew The fragrant crimson beating through The languid lips of her, whose kiss Was as a poppy's drowsiness.

Out of the moonlight and the air I wrought the glory of her hair, That o'er her eyes’ blue heaven lay Like some gold cloud o'er dawn of day.

I took the music of the breeze And water, whispering in the trees, And shaped the soul that breathed below A woman's blossom breasts of snow.

A shadow's shadow in the glass Of sleep, my spirit saw her pass: And thinking of it now, meseems We only live within our dreams.

For in that time she was to me More real than our reality; More real than Earth, more real than I — The unreal things that pass and die.

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A DREAM SHAPE · Madison Julius Cawein · Poetry Cove