Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-04-27
DREAMS AND WAKENINGs.
An Interesting Chapter of Literary
Gossip.

SObbips
Tho relief of awakening from dream
OF horrorand oppression-th disappointment
OF awakening from one of lranscendent bliss
and rapture-which is the greaters To at
tempt to determine any such question us that
were futile. But either kind of dream or
wakening has its interest, and we propose to
offer some illustrations from miscellaneous
literature of both kinds-thc sens, of deiec.
ton at finding bIatifc vision mere illusion
gone, as Il dream, when one awaken; and
the same sense Of tremulous delight at find
Ing the teriors of Sleep dispelled and all the
hideous shapes and spells aud torturcs of
dreamand bubble that has burst. Byron
tells us that to dream Of Joy and wake to
sorrow is doomed to all who love or live
and that when conscious Of the morrow, we
scarce our fancy can forgive that cheated
us IN slumber only to leave the waking soul
more lonely. The younger of his 1.-TWO
foscari, .pilcously deprecaing exile from
his too dearly-loycd Venice, talks of "drcam-
Ing disturbed vision" of her glories, whence
bitterly he "awoke and found them not. ."
Equally doomed was Queen Catherine when
reused from rapturous vision to.exclaim
Spirits OF peace, where are they: Are We all
gone
And leave me here IN wretchedness behini ye :.
or the same style is the plaint of prisoner
Posthumus in Cymbeline: Gone! They
went hence as soon as they were born. And
50 am awake. Poor wretches that depend
on greatness favor dream as | have done
wake ana lind nothing" Caliban's wild i'm
agination found ecstasy in dreaming
The rlDtia ma,
Ready to drop upon me- that, when wascd,
cfled 10 dream again.
Has not the Hebrew prophet, in graver
mood and higher strain, said much the same
thing more tnan 1000 years ago7 ut shall
even be as when an hungry man dreamcth,
ana, behold, he ea'c,h but he awaketh, and
BEHOLD, he is FAINT" So with visions Of
wealth; we wake, aud the shining sovercigns
and the ru>tlins notes have turned into dry
leaves, like tie money paid by the magician
in the ''Arabian Nights" So with visions
oi tho old familiar faces. when the life-blood
courses warmly through the old friendly
hands and dead babies crow and battle val
orouslJ in muses. arms" and dead sweet
hearts smile and blush and dead boon COM
panions crack the old jokes, sing The old
songs, tell the old stories, till we wake into
the Kingdom OF the possible and, all me,
lhe eye turns to vacant chair, Il faded min
iature, lock of soft hair in crumplcd tissue
paper. broken toy; while the minds vision
rccurs TO green mound and q half-eifaced
stone" In the poets land of dreams, the
picture land Of sleer, the bowers are fair
even as Eden fair
All the beloved OF my soul are there;
Inc forms my spirit most pines TO see,
Ihe eyes wnUs love hath been life 10 me-
are lntIt, anu rACn blessed voice | hear.
klndly, anu Joyous. and silvery clear;
But undertOnes are In each they say,
"lt Is but dream 1t VIII melt away"
One of Philip Bourke Marstons sonncts
contains the telling simile:
Then am as man who sees in dreams
some dead beloved face, and, seeing, dreams
The past dream, the dream reality.
But, on the bitter waking when, alas!
lie knows the mOcking dream for what II was,
ANA gaaes on a new day hopelessly!
Take, again, Campbel's exile of Erin. Z"
who, though sad and forsaken, in dreams can
revisit her sea beaten shore "but alas, in
far foreign land awaken and sigh for the
friends who can meet me no morc!" His
SOLDIERS Dream, too, is n lyric 10 the pur-
pose, dealing with sweet vision the weary
warrior has of household forms and faces, OF
children that cling to him and of wife that
implores him
"slay, stay with US, rest-thou art weary and
And fain was their war-broken soldier TO stay:
But sorrow returned with the dawning OF morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away
The last letter to his wife, written during
the night by Camille Desmoulius In prison,
is called by Lamartine the final testament OF
his heart, which gave itself up to love before
1t was deprived of life at the hands of the
executioner, and thus it begins; "a consol.
ing sleep has suspended my sufTerings. We
are free when we sleep; wehavc no feeling of
captivity. Heaven has had pity on me- But
u moment since saw you in my dreams and
IN turns embraced you, your mother, Horace
all awoke and found myself in my dun
geon." AS with the imprisoned gill in Mrs
Newton's poem, who dreams Of rescue by
him she loves, dreams of his overmastering
her vile lailors and bearing her swiftly to a
bower OF bliss
safe IN his shelterng arms once more she sleeps.
An, happy dream She wakes, amazed, afraid,
Lake young panther from her couch she leaps,
oizet bewlldered round, then mady shrieks and
weeps.
FOR lar above her head the prison bars
nock hsr with Narrow sections Of that sky