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Dream-Pedlary by Thomas Lovell Beddoes, 1851
1. Verse
If there were dreams to sell,
What would you buy?
Some cost a passing bell;
Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life`s fresh crown
Only a rose-leave down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Mary and sad to tell,
And a crier rung the bell,
What would you buy,
If there were dreams to sell?
2. Verse
A cottage lone and still,
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until I die.
Such pearl from Live`s fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down.
Were dreams to have at will,
This would best heal my ill,
This would I buy.
3. Verse
But there were dreams to sell
Ill didst thou buy;
Life is a dream, they tell,
Waking, to die.
Dreaming a dream to prize,
Is wishing ghosts to rise:
And, if I had the spell
To call the buried well,
Which one would I?
4. Verse
If there are ghosts to raise,
What shall I call,
Out of hell`s murky haze,
Heaven`s blue pall?
Raise my loved long-lost boy
To lead me to his joy.
There are no ghosts to raise;
Out of death leads no ways;
Vain is the call.
If there were dreams to sell,
What would you buy?
Some cost a passing bell;
Some a light sigh,
That shakes from Life`s fresh crown
Only a rose-leave down.
If there were dreams to sell,
Mary and sad to tell,
And a crier rung the bell,
What would you buy,
If there were dreams to sell?
2. Verse
A cottage lone and still,
With bowers nigh,
Shadowy, my woes to still,
Until I die.
Such pearl from Live`s fresh crown
Fain would I shake me down.
Were dreams to have at will,
This would best heal my ill,
This would I buy.
3. Verse
But there were dreams to sell
Ill didst thou buy;
Life is a dream, they tell,
Waking, to die.
Dreaming a dream to prize,
Is wishing ghosts to rise:
And, if I had the spell
To call the buried well,
Which one would I?
4. Verse
If there are ghosts to raise,
What shall I call,
Out of hell`s murky haze,
Heaven`s blue pall?
Raise my loved long-lost boy
To lead me to his joy.
There are no ghosts to raise;
Out of death leads no ways;
Vain is the call.
