Classic Poem

Not as we dream them,
Rose-sweet and wonderful,
Laughter-thrilled, magical,
Our dreams come true.

Always some hidden,
Unforeseen circumstance,
Seeming malevolence,
Darkens the view.

Something we want not,
Ugly and masterful,
Sprouts through the beautiful,
Wars with our joy.

Someone is missing:
Gone the sweet comradeship,
Commerce of eye and lip —
Barren is Troy.

Yet go we ever,
Though earthly experience
Mocks at their radiance,
Dreaming our dreams.

Dreams without reason,
Rose-sweet and wonderful,
Laughter-thrilled, magical —
Fools? — So it seems.

Or is there a feeble
Spark of the infinite
Burning in Hell's despite,
In me and you,

Lighting us onward
Through the inscrutable
To a land wonderful
Where, as we dream them,
Our dreams will come true?