Dream Land

	Where sunless rivers weep
	Their waves into the deep,
	She sleeps a charmed sleep:
	Awake her not.
	Led by a single star,
	She came from very far
	To seek where shadows are
	Her pleasant lot.
	She left the rosy morn,
	She left the fields of corn,
	For twilight cold and lorn
	And water springs.
	Through sleep, as through a veil,
	She sees the sky look pale,
	And hears the nightingale
	That sadly sings.
	Rest, rest, a perfect rest
	Shed over brow and breast;
	Her face is toward the west,
	The purple land.
	She cannot see the grain
	Ripening on hill and plain;
	She cannot feel the rain
	Upon her hand.
	Rest, rest, for evermore
	Upon a mossy shore;
	Rest, rest at the heart's core
	Till time shall cease:
	Sleep that no pain shall wake;
	Night that no morn shall break
	Till joy shall overtake
	Her perfect peace. Christina Rosetti 1830-94