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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  A Dream

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

A Dream

By Milicent Washburn Shinn (1858–1940)

IF I shall find myself, long after death,

In some vast darkness walking all alone,

And strain my every sense and hold my breath,

Because each step before me is unknown;

If, all around, the darkness blank and still

Hangs heavily and thick with shapeless dread,

And I go ever on without my will,

Yet dare not stop nor even turn my head,

But tremble, sick with terror, lest I may

At any instant cower to feel the clutch

Of something that has followed all the way—

If then thy sudden hand my shoulder touch,

I shall not shudder. Longed-for touch and dear,

How should I fail to know thee even here?