Page:The Improvisatrice.pdf/275

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And sometimes I have dreamed I heard A step soft as a lover's word, And caught a perfume on the air, And saw a shadow gliding fair, Dim, sad as if it came to sigh O'er thoughts, and things, and time passed by! On one side of the temple stood A deep and solitary wood, Where chestnuts reared their giant length, And mocked the fallen columns' strength; It was the lone wood-pigeon's home, And flocks of them would ofttimes come, And, lighting on the temple, pour A cooing dirge to days no more! And by its side there was a lake With only snow-white swans to break,