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Home  »  The Book of Restoration Verse  »  Aphra Behn (1640–1689)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Restoration Verse. 1910.

The Dream

Aphra Behn (1640–1689)

THE GROVE was gloomy all around,

Murmuring the stream did pass,

Where fond Astraea laid her down

Upon a bed of grass;

I slept and saw a piteous sight,

Cupid a-weeping lay,

Till both his little stars of light

Had wept themselves away.

Methought I asked him why he cried;

My pity led me on,—

All sighing the sad boy replied,

‘Alas! I am undone!

As I beneath yon myrtles lay,

Down by Diana’s springs,

Amyntas stole my bow away,

And pinioned both my wings.’

‘Alas!’ I cried, ‘’twas then thy darts

Wherewith he wounded me?

Thou mighty deity of hearts,

He stole his power from thee?

Revenge thee, if a god thou be,

Upon the amorous swain,

I’ll set thy wings at liberty,

And thou shalt fly again;

And, for this service on my part,

All I demand of thee,

Is, wound Amyntas’ cruel heart,

And make him die for me.’

His silken fetters I untied,

And those gay wings displayed,

Which gently fanned, he mounting cried,

‘Farewell, fond easy maid!’

At this I blushed, and angry grew

I should a god believe,

And waking found my dream too true,

For I was still a slave.