Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.


O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet,
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.


Yet come to me in dreams that I may live
My very life again though cold in death;
Come back to me in dreams, that i may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.


-- Christina Georgiana Rossetti


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