Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — A Dream Shape

A DREAM SHAPE

With moon-white hearts that held a gleam I gathered wildflowers in a dream, And shaped a woman, whose sweet blood Was odor of the wildwood bud.

From dew, the starlight arrowed through, I wrought a woman’s eyes of blue;

The lids that on her eyeballs lay Were rose-pale petals of the May.

Out of a rosebud’s veins I drew The fragrant crimson beating through The languid lips of her, whose kiss Was as a poppy’s drowsiness.

Out of the moonlight and the air I wrought the glory of her hair, That o’er her eyes’ blue heaven lay Like some gold cloud o’er dawn of day.

[Illustration: My spirit saw her pass Page 432 _A Dream Shape_] I took the music of the breeze And water, whispering in the trees, And shaped the soul that breathed below A woman’s blossom breasts of snow.

A shadow’s shadow in the glass Of sleep, my spirit saw her pass: And thinking of it now, meseems We only live within our dreams.

For in that time she was to me More real than our reality;

More real than Earth, more real than I-- The unreal things that pass and die.