William Hunter Birckhead

DREAM on, fair child! such dreams as thine help hide

What, all too soon, ’t will be thy fate to know;

And which once known, thy dreams no more will show,

Save as faint lights, which with us fain would bide,

In life’s stern path, like old-time friends, long tried,

To cheer and help, when hope and faith sink low,

By thoughts of days which from us ne’er will go—

When all the world seemed bright, and Love was guide!

“Why not, e’en yet, be brave and seek to rise?”

So speak life’s dreams grown old; and what they say

Is true. We strive once more; and now, more wise

Than then we were, ere long we win our way;

And in our joy, we clutch our hard-won prize,

And bless our dreams that still they hold their sway.