A Dream

Last night I saw the slim moon rise,
Faint o'er her clouds of rose-bloom spread
  A lingering touch of sunset hue.
Then with their tender, half drawn sighs
Awoke the winds the sleeping stars
  And bound them in the deepening blue.

All in the sparkling, frost-bound night
I saw the dead flowers flutter forth
  To dance beside the fairies there.
They shone with softened rainbow light,
Their voices faint - sweet, broken lutes -
  Scarce echoed through the silent air.

The dreamy music, faintly sweet,
Crept o'er me, through me. Round and round
  Danced misty, rainbow-tinted forms.
The moon grew paler, sank to meet
The sleeping hills. Then dawned afar
  From East to West the flowing morn.

- Christine Hamilton, 1897.