Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Songs and Ballads. III. Dreams

Caroline Elizabeth Sarah (Sheridan) Norton (1808–1877)

SURELY I heard a voice—surely my name

Was breathed in tones familiar to my heart!

I listened—and the low wind stealing came,

In darkness and in silence to depart.

Surely I saw a form, a proud bright form,

Standing beside my couch! I raised mine eyes:

’Twas but a dim cloud, herald of a storm,

That floated through the grey and twilight skies.

Surely the brightness of the summer hour

Hath suddenly burst upon the circling gloom!

I dream; ’twas but the perfume of a flower,

Which the breeze wafted through the silent room.

Surely a hand clasped mine with greetings fond!

A name is murmured by my lips with pain;

Woe for that sound—woe for love’s broken bond.

I start—I wake—I am alone again!