Andrew Bice Saxton

THERE was a land that lay beyond my sight

For which I vainly searched the great earth through.

Thither, right often, my companions flew

At day-break, or at noontide, or at night,

And never came again. I took my flight,

Explored all portions of the globe, yet grew

No nearer where that mighty retinue

Had fled into the stately fields of light.

But once, when evening her dusk sails had spread,

And I was sleeping, a swift dream came o’er

My spirit, and in it I rising said,

“Now is the country mine, long sought before!”

And one I heard lament that I was dead;

And lo! the land stretched just beside my door!