God's Lily
By George Sterling
A dream within a dream: it seemed I slept
Beneath the shadows of a moon-washed glade,
With lilies in my arms benignly laid—
Found in a valley where the dusk had wept;
Star-pale was each, from out whose calice crept
A fragrance that was soul of slumber's shade
And spirit of its silence, as it made
My breast a harp that dreamland fingers swept.
And then I dreamt I woke, but mine embrace
No longer knew the holy lilies' gleam,
For whiter, purer, thou hadst found their place,
And sweeter on my lips thy loving breath!
O crowning, O unutterable dream!
Return it, Heaven! altho' the cost be death!
Carmel.