“Dreams" by Helen Hunt Jackson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 7, 2017   Dreams   Helen Hunt Jackson

Mysterious shapes, with wands of joy and pain, Which seize us unaware in helpless sleep, And lead us to the houses where we keep Our secrets hid, well barred by every chain That we can forge and bind: the crime whose stain Is slowly fading 'neath the tears we weep; Dead bliss which, dead, can make our pulses leap— Oh, cruelty! To make these live again! They say that death is sleep, and heaven's rest Ends earth's short day, as, on the last faint gleam Of sun, our nights shut down, and we are blest. Let this, then, be of heaven's joy the test, The proof if heaven be, or only seem, That we forever choose what we will dream!            This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "Dreams" was published in Sonnets and Lyrics (Roberts Brothers, 1886).   Helen Hunt Jackson was born in October 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her collections of poetry include Verses (Fields, Osgood & Co., 1870) and Sonnets and Lyrics (Roberts Brothers, 1886). She died on August 12, 1885. Poetry by Jackson   Helen Hunt Jackson: Selected Colorado Writings (Filter Press, 2002) "We never know how high we are (1176)" by Emily Dickinson "A Musical Instrument" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning "Hymn to the Night" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038