American Poetry

THE INN OF DREAMS Sweet Laughter ! Sweet Delight ! My heart is like a lighted Inn that waits Your swift approach ... and at the open gates White Beauty stands and listens like a flower. She has been dreaming of you in the night, O fairy Princes ; and her eyes are bright. Spur your fleet horses, this is Beauty's hour ! Even as when a golden flame up-curled Quivers and flickers out in a dark place, So is it with the flame of Beauty's face- That torch ! that rose ! that wonder of the world ! And Love shall weep to see-when he rides by Years hence (the time shall seem as a bird's flight)- A lonely Inn beneath a winter sky.
Come now, sweet friends ! before the summer die. Sweet Laughter ! Sweet Delight !