A Dream

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 tops

Bent in a wind which bore to me a sound

      Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.