A Report Song in a Dream

A Report Song in a Dream, between a shepherd and his nymph

Shall we go dance the hay?        The hay?
Never pipe could ever play
    Better shepherd's roundelay.

Shall we go sing the song?        The song?
Never Love did ever wrong.
    Fair maids, hold hands all along.

Shall we go learn to woo?        To woo?
Never thought came ever to[o](?)
    Better deed could better do.

Shall we go learn to kiss?        To kiss?
Never heart could ever miss
    Comfort where true meaning is.

Thus at base they run,                They run,
When the sport was scarce begun;
    But I waked, and all was done.

Nicholas Breton

Nicholas Breton was an English poet and novelist. He became notable in his time for his wide range of works, from pastoral poetry to satire. Over the years, Breton developed a distinctive style marked by its versatility and lyrical beauty. Some of his more famous works include 'The Pilgrimage to Paradise' and 'A Floorish Upon Fancie.' His contribution to the literary landscape of his era remains impactful.

Nicholas Breton

A Pastoral of Phyllis and Corydon

Nicholas Breton, Simple Poetry

A Sweet Contention between Love, his Mistress, and Beauty

Nicholas Breton, Simple Poetry

Aglaia: a Pastoral

Nicholas Breton, Simple Poetry

English

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Another of the Same (A Report Song in a Dream)

Say that I should say I love ye,
    Would you say 'tis but a saying?
But if Love in prayers move ye,
    Will ye not be moved with praying?

Think I think that Love should know ye,
    Will you think 'tis but a thinking?
But if Love the thought do show ye,
    Will ye loose your eyes with winking?

Write that I do write you blessed,
    Will you write 'tis but a writing?
But if Truth and Love confess it,
    Will ye doubt the true inditing?

No, I say, and think, and write it,
    Write, and think, and say your pleasure;
Love, and truth, and I indite it,
    You are blessèd out of measure.

Nicholas Breton

A Shepherd's Dream

A silly shepherd lately sat
    Among a flock of sheep;
Where musing long on this and that,
    At last he fell asleep.
And in the slumber as he lay,
    He gave a piteous groan;
He thought his sheep were run away,
    And he was left alone.
He whoop'd, he whistled, and he call'd,
    But not a sheep came near him;
Which made the shepherd sore appall'd
    To see that none would hear him.
But as the swain amazèd stood,
    In this most solemn vein,
Came Phyllida forth of the wood,
    And stood before the swain.
Whom when the shepherd did behold
    He straight began to weep,
And at the heart he grew a-cold,
    To think upon his sheep.
For well he knew, where came the queen,
    The shepherd durst not stay:
And where that he durs...

Nicholas Breton

A Dream Of Long Ago

Lying listless in the mosses
Underneath a tree that tosses
Flakes of sunshine, and embosses
    Its green shadow with the snow -
Drowsy-eyed, I sink in slumber
Born of fancies without number -
Tangled fancies that encumber
    Me with dreams of long ago.

Ripples of the river singing;
And the water-lilies swinging
Bells of Parian, and ringing
    Peals of perfume faint and fine,
While old forms and fairy faces
Leap from out their hiding-places
In the past, with glad embraces
    Fraught with kisses sweet as wine.

Willows dip their slender fingers
O'er the little fisher's stringers,
While he baits his hook and lingers
    Till the shadows gather dim;
And afar off comes a calling
Like the sounds of water falling,
With the...

James Whitcomb Riley

Song

    There is a wood where the fairies dance
    All night long in a ring of mushrooms daintily,
    By each tree bole sits a squirrel or a mole,
    And the moon through the branches darts.

    Light on the grass their slim limbs glance,
    Their shadows in the moonlight swing in quiet unison,
    And the moon discovers that they all have lovers,
    But they never break their hearts.

    They never grieve at all for sands that run,
    They never know regret for a deed that's done,
    And they never think of going to a shed with a gun
    At the rising of the sun.

John Collings Squire, Sir

Reminiscence

        We sang old love-songs on the way
            In sad and merry snatches,
        Your fingers o'er the strings astray
            Strumming the random catches.

        And ever, as the skiff plied on
            Among the trailing willows,
        Trekking the darker deeps to shun
            The gleaming sandy shallows,

        It seemed that we had, ages gone,
            In some far summer weather,
        When this same faery moonlight shone,
            Sung these same songs together.

        And every grassy cape we passed,
            And every reedy island,
        Even the bank'd cloud in the west
            That loomed a sombre highland;

        And you, with dewmist on your hair,
            Crowned with a wreat...

John Charles McNeill

A Reverie ["Did I dream of a song? or sing in a dream?"]

Did I dream of a song? or sing in a dream?
Why ask when the night only knoweth?
The night -- and the angel of sleep!
But ever since then a music deep,
Like a stream thro' a shadow-land, floweth
Under each thought of my spirit that groweth
Into the blossom and bloom of speech --
Under each fancy that cometh and goeth --
Wayward, as waves when evening breeze bloweth
Out of the sunset and into the beach.
And is it a wonder I wept to-day?
For I mused and thought, but I cannot say
If I dreamed of a song, or sang in a dream.
In the silence of sleep, and the noon of night;
And now -- even now -- 'neath the words I write,
The flush of the dream or the flow of the song --
I cannot tell which -- moves strangely along.
But why write more? I am puzzled sore:
Did...

Abram Joseph Ryan