Francis Thompson: To My Friend

Francis Thompson

To My Friend

When from the blossoms of the noiseful day,

Unto the hive of sleep and hushed gloom,

Throng the dim-wingèd dreams, what dreams are they

That with the wildest honey hover home?

O they that have, from many thousand thoughts,

Stolen the strange sweet of ever blossomy you—-

A thousand fancies in fair-coloured knots

Which you are inexhausted meadow to.

Ah, what sharp heathery honey, quick with pain,

Do they bring home! It holds the night awake

To hear their lovely murmur in my brain,

And sleep's wings have a trouble for your sake.

Day and you dawn together; for, at end,

With the first light breaks the first thought—my Friend.

Francis Thompson