Pan-Worship, and Other Poems

Chapter 12: DREAM-SHIPS

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About This Book

A lyrical collection that weaves mythic and folk imagery with intimate pastoral observation. Poems summon classical and rural pagan presences, celebrate springs, woods, and seasonal renewal, and linger over longing for vanished rites. Voices shift between vagrant singers, dreaming peasant figures, and reflective speakers, moving through short songs, narrative ballads, and contemplative lyrics. Recurring motifs include enchanted gardens, musical reverie, and the healing powers of earth and ritual, with tone ranging from playful gaiety to wistful melancholy and a consistent emphasis on vivid sensory detail and musical phrasing.

DREAM-SHIPS

I set my dream-ships floating

Upon the tides of sleep.

Beneath whose moving waters

Unfathomed currents creep;

And one was made of roses

With flowering mast and spars,

And one was made of music,

And one was made of stars:

One was all joy and sorrow

Made from my own heart-strings,

And one was like a cradle

With sails like angels' wings.

O little ships that wander

All lonely on the deep,

And only come to haven

Upon the tides of sleep.