I HAD a dream; and I was wandering,
Lonely and sad, upon a foreign shore;
Round me I heard the sea's eternal roar,
And the wild wind's prophetic murmuring!
I watch'd the storm upon its strange career;
I grew acquainted with the mountain blast;
It was my music — leaves that rustled sere,
And the scath'd foliage, crackling as it past!
I mus'd upon the scene — when 'mid the waste,
Thro' the long distance, came a voice of dread,
Like thunder o'er my senses: — " Mortal, haste,
For clouds and whirlwinds are around thy head,
Thy port is there, in yon pure stainless sky,
And thy next step may be eternity!"

I HAD a dream; and I was wandering,
Lonely and sad, upon a foreign shore;
Round me I heard the sea's eternal roar,
And the wild wind's prophetic murmuring!
I watch'd the storm upon its strange career;
I grew acquainted with the mountain blast;
It was my music — leaves that rustled sere,
And the scath'd foliage, crackling as it past!
I mus'd upon the scene — when 'mid the waste,
Thro' the long distance, came a voice of dread,
Like thunder o'er my senses: — " Mortal, haste,
For clouds and whirlwinds are around thy head,
Thy port is there, in yon pure stainless sky,
And thy next step may be eternity!"