Come to me in the silence of the night;
come in the speaking silence of a dream.
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
as sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
whose awakening should have been in Paradise,
where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
where thirsting longing eyes
watch the slow door
that opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams that I may live
my very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
pulse for pulse, breath for breath.
Speak low, lean low,
as long ago, my love, how long ago.
~ Christina Rossetti