[by Edgar Allan Poe (1827)]

Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.
Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,

'Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must be,
And hath been still, upon the lovely earth,
A chaos of deep passion, from his birth.

But should it be- that dream eternally
Continuing as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood, should it thus be given,
'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven.

For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright
I' the summer sky, in dreams of living light
And loveliness, have left my very heart
In climes  of my imagining, apart

From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought - what more... what more could I have seen?

[Anastacia’s voice]
Tra-la-la-la-la-la....

[Talk:]
'Twas once and only once and the wild hour
From my remembrance shall not pass some power
Or spell had bound me 'twas the chillywind
Came o'er me in the night, and left behind
Its image on my spirit or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
Too coldly or the stars howe'er it was
That dream was as that night-wind let it pass.

I have been happy, tho' in a dream.
I have been happy and I love the theme:

Dreams! in their vivid coloring of life,
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality, which brings
To the delirious eye, more lovely things

Of Paradise and Love - and all our own!  [3x]
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.