Rays of Hope

It was as if all substance disappeared

For in my dream I clasped your wraithlike form

So fragile that in holding you I feared

Your body would dissolve which yet was warm

And supple yielding to my lightest touch.

I asked you how I might be of some use,

The love within my heart and soul was such

That nothing you would ask I could refuse,

But then I woke and weeping understood

Embracing you was but a passing dream,

Its meaning vague and all your lifelike mood

A vision or an evanescent gleam

Of joy once known that now is mine no more,

A tenderness and sweetness as of flowers,

A life divine our basis and the core

That joined our souls in concert with the hours.

This earthly life so precious and so brief

In momentary glimpses of delight

And joys that add a piquancy to grief,

Sheds rays of hope like stars in darkest night.