Amanuensis Monday - Grandma Hill's Poetry, week 5

MY DREAM

I dreamed of you, and all the fair

Sweet joys of other years came back.

The days, unburdened by a care

The words, the smiles, the tears, alack!

And yet, Love's sacred own, each tear

Only made love more dear, more dear,

To you - to me - Love's vanished years

Came back - my eyes were full of tears.

I dreamed of you, and thought I'd stay

My tears, and check my aching heart.

I bade the present - go apart

And be no more, while I should dream

Of happy days - and you - and deem

'Twas not a dream!

But when those years come back -

My eyes were full of tears.

I dreamed of you, and let them have

Their way - my tears -

And let my breast throb with unrest,

The while I gave myself up to my dream - the blest

Dear memory of what once was!

'Twere vain to have done else, because

When the lone heart dreams of Love's years

'Tis then the eyes will fill with tears. 

Nancy Jane Wiley Hill (1875-1960) was always writing something.  Many of those poems are now in the possession of her granddaughter Shirley Kern.  Shirley, with the help of her sister-in-law Ruth Ormsby, transcribed these poems in 1996 for a Hill-Ormsby-Kern family reunion.  I am going to post many of these poems so that they may be enjoyed by all. 

These are copyright 1996 and reprinted with permission.