In visions of the dark night
     I have dreamed of joy departed,
But a waking dream of life and light
     Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
     To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
     Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream - that holy dream,
     While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
     A lonely spirit guiding.

What though the light, thro' storm and night.
     So trembled from afar,
What could there be more purely bright
     In Truth's day-star?

           -Edgar Allan Poe