The Inn of Dreams

THE INN OF DREAMS
Sweet Laughter! Sweet Delight!
My heart is like a lighted Inn that waits
Your swift approach . . . and at the open gates
White Beauty stands and listens like a flower.
She has been dreaming of you in the night,
O fairy Princes; and her eyes are bright.
Spur your fleet horses, this is Beauty's hour!
Even as when a golden flame up-curled
Quivers and flickers out in a dark place,
So is it with the flame of Beauty's face—
That torch! that rose! that wonder of the world!
And Love shall weep to see—when he rides by
Years hence (the time shall seem as a bird's flight)—
A lonely Inn beneath a winter sky.
Come now, sweet friends! before the summer die.
Sweet Laughter! Sweet Delight!