The soldier's dream

Our bugles sung truce, for the night-cloud had low'r'd,

And the Sentinel stars set their watch in the sky,

And thousands had sunk on the ground, overpow'r'd,

The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.

When reposing that night om my pallet of straw,

By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain,

At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw,

And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.

Methought from the battlefield's dreadful array,

Far, far I had roam'd on a desolate track;

'Twas autumn, and sunshine arose on the way

To the home of my fathers, that welcom'd me back.

I flew to the pleasant fields travers'd so oft

In life's morning march, when my bosom was young;

I heard my own mountain goats bleating aloft,

And knew the sweet strain the cornreapers sung.

Then pledg'd we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore.

From my home and my weeping friends never to part;

My little ones kiss'd me a thousand times o'er,

And my wife sobb'd aloud in her fullness of heart.

Stay, stay with us, rest, thou art weary and worn;

And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay;

But sorrow return'd with the drawing of morn,

And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.