| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | Dream People | | By Isabel Ecclestone Mackay (1875–1928) |
| | | WHERE dwell the dear dream people who fly at break of day? | |
| Their laughter sinks to silence, their faces melt away— | |
| The only voice that lingers is the voice which bids them stay! | |
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| We know they wait us somewhere, safe-harboured by the night; | |
| They are as real as hand or brain, as vivid as the light, | 5 |
| As actual as is the sun whose coming speeds their flight. | |
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| They bring the breath of summer, the autumn moon, the sigh | |
| That stirs the perfumed bushes as the night wind wanders by, | |
| And all the sweet dead sights and sounds that never really die. | |
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| They come with tears and laughter; they never fail or fade— | 10 |
| Last night myself came dancing back a little red-cheeked maid, | |
| With aproned frock and braided hair and clear eyes unafraid. | |
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| And often comes a merry lad, laughing, and tall and tanned, | |
| And all the old delight sweeps back—his hand upon my hand, | |
| With just we two alone in all the lovely, love-lit land! | 15 |
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| Yet when we wake they leave us! I wonder where they stay. | |
| And when we never wake at all shall we be just as they— | |
| For ever free, for ever young, beyond the touch of day? | | | | |
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