'And ask ye why these sad tears stream?'

'And ask ye why these sad tears stream'
-Alfred Lord Tennyson

'And ask ye why these sad tears stream?'

‘Te somnia nostra reducunt.’ OVID.

And ask ye why these sad tears stream?

Why these wan eyes are dim with weeping?

I had a dream–a lovely dream, Of her that in the grave is sleeping.

I saw her as ’twas yesterday, The bloom upon her cheek still glowing;

And round her play’d a golden ray, And on her brows were gay flowers blowing.

With angel-hand she swept a lyre, A garland red with roses bound it;

Its strings were wreath’d with lambent fire And amaranth was woven round it.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">I saw her mid the realms of light, <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">In everlasting radiance gleaming;

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Co-equal with the seraphs bright, <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Mid thousand thousand angels beaming.

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">I strove to reach her, when, behold, <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Those fairy forms of bliss Elysian,

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">And all that rich scene wrapt in gold, <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Faded in air–a lovely vision!

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">And I awoke, but oh! to me <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">That waking hour was doubly weary;

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">And yet I could not envy thee, <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;">Although so blest, and I so dreary.