WINE OF DREAMS
With wine of dream-land fill the cupAnd pledge the past, my soul, with me;Drink deep, old friend, and summons upThe ghost of all the Used-To-Be.Here’s to the joys we knew erstwhile;Look how they troop, a motley crew!Here’s to the laugh, the jest, the smile,That cheered our way when life was new.“Comrades, good cheer! Good luck be yours!Long may you follow on our track;Until we pass to farther shores—Then to our place here turn you backAnd laugh with those we leave behind;Ring merry music in their ears;Crack joke with joke in merry kind,Till they shall give no place to tears.”We crave no grief, my soul and I;Each life enough of sorrow knows;Let none mourn darkly when we lieIn silence under rue and rose.And you, gray wraith in cowl and gown,Who “Closer than a brother” pressed;Here on this last couch lay you down—Together neath Death’s touch we rest.For you were fashioned of our tears;You were the shadow which Life’s real,With broken hopes and bitter fears,Cast o’er our shining, high ideal.Your power is done—hide in the dustOf that wild heart which gave you birth—But all our joys we leave in trustTo cheer some toiling child of earth.