Come to me in the silence of the night;
    Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
    As sunlight on a stream;
            Come back in tears,
O memory, hope and love of finished years.


O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter-sweet,
    Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brim-full of love abide and meet;
    Where thirsting longing eyes
             Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.


Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
    My very life again though cold in death;
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
    Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
             Speak low, lean low,
As long ago my love, how long ago.
 

Christina Rossetti  (1830 -  1894)