| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Life’s Dreams | | By William Hunter Birckhead |
| | | DREAM on, fair child! such dreams as thine help hide | |
| What, all too soon, ’t will be thy fate to know; | |
| And which once known, thy dreams no more will show, | |
| Save as faint lights, which with us fain would bide, | |
| In life’s stern path, like old-time friends, long tried, | 5 |
| To cheer and help, when hope and faith sink low, | |
| By thoughts of days which from us ne’er will go— | |
| When all the world seemed bright, and Love was guide! | |
| “Why not, e’en yet, be brave and seek to rise?” | |
| So speak life’s dreams grown old; and what they say | 10 |
| Is true. We strive once more; and now, more wise | |
| Than then we were, ere long we win our way; | |
| And in our joy, we clutch our hard-won prize, | |
| And bless our dreams that still they hold their sway. | | | | |
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