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- FROM THE GREEN HELMET AND OTHER POEMS
-
- HIS DREAM
- I SWAYED upon the gaudy stem
- The butt-end of a steering-oar,
- And saw wherever I could turn
- A crowd upon a shore.
- And though I would have hushed the crowd,
- There was no mother's son but said,
- "What is the figure in a shroud
- Upon a gaudy bed?'
- And after running at the brim
- Cried out upon that thing beneath
- -- It had such dignity of limb --
- By the sweet name of Death.
- Though I'd my finger on my lip,
- What could I but take up the song?
- And running crowd and gaudy ship
- Cried out the whole night long,
- Crying amid the glittering sea,
- Naming it with ecstatic breath,
- Because it had such dignity,
- By the sweet name of Death.
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