A Dream
Sonnet
Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you)We stood together in an open field;Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled,Sporting at ease and courting full in view.When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed;Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield;So farewell life and love and pleasures new.Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops,I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep:But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow topsBent in a wind which bore to me a soundOf far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.