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.