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THE DREAM OF MARIEZZO. 



To LIEUTENANT JOHN SKIRROW, Bombay Engineer Corps, 



these lines are most affectionately inscribed by hisfriend, 



W.T. 



I had a dream : That when the light 

 First smiles on our pilgrimage here, 

 Another soul, in all the might 



And power, with which our own appear, 

 Is doomed some other human frame's compeer. 



And that one yearning love, unknown, 



Mysterious, changeless, and deep, 

 Is o'er these likened beings thrown, 



Which they must still unconscious keep : 

 Anent this darkened world's unhallowed steep. 



That when their sun sets on its day ; 



When life's fleeting current is spent ; 

 These clayey things seek other clay, 



These spirits are together sent 

 To those unfathomed realms perhaps, wherefrom they went. 



My dream was changed : a form I found, 

 Whose soul wore the semblance of mine : 

 Which seemed with like affections bound : 



As if, at some lone, hidden shrine, 

 Fate stood, and did one destiny consign. 



As I would stray so could it stray 



Secluded apart from the world : 

 To wonder on things far away ; 



To view this mystic curtain furled : 

 And all, from bursting clay, to brightness hurled. 



To search 'neath Earth's obscurest guise, 



For knowledge availably sought : 

 Our sole immortal nature's prize ! 



'Mid throes of darkest passions bought, 

 We'd sadly tread unbidden paths of thought. 



As my heart proudly beat its heart 

 With attributes mournfully just 

 Which from aught earthly ne'er might start, 



Save such development : I trust 

 So like ! yet formed of how much gentler dust ! 



I saw a father bless his son ; 

 An exile to India's shore ; 

 Perchance the last his child hath won : 

 Ah ! few can tell what feelings tore 

 Those hearts at parting perhaps, to meet no more ! 



I marked a boat ; where, wrapt in gloom, 



That sire from a high vessel stepped; 

 The son looked forth, as from a tomb, 



As 'neath the port he slowly swept : 

 No sound was there : they only gazed and wept. 



