Dulcinë

Last night I dreamt of Dulcinë

As I lay dozing in the hay

I saw once more the fairie lights

That twinkled o so many nights

And danced again in sylvan glades

With shimmering nymphs and elfin maids

They mouthed sweet nothings in my ears

That soon allayed my boyish fears

There happened next a fairie feast

Until the sun rose in the east

Then bathed in dawn’s first rosy light

The fairie host withdrew from sight

Into the hill beyond the trees

Leaving me on hands and knees

And when at last my wits I found

I stood and gazing all around

Beheld anew by light of day

The ruin that was Dulcinë

For the fairie folk had led me there

Rather than bare me to their lair

Beneath that mound beside the wood

Where I would follow if I could

The sun rose higher in the sky

And from afar I heard the cry

Of tawny gryphons on the wing

While down below an icy spring

Flowed into a deep dark pond

That once had fed the moat beyond

Blue band that back in the day

Had girdled fabled Dulcinë

 

I wandered ’mongst the tumbling towers

Quite heedless of the passing hours

Until the sun began to sink

I only then began to think

Of home and all it meant to me

Which shook me from my reverie

So settling ’neath a fallen arch

I watched the moon commence its march

High into night’s canopy

And lo I saw in front of me

Pale phantoms rise – o baleful sight!

That promenaded through the night…

 

Finally I fell asleep

And when I wakened in a heap

I knew the world I saw was real

My thoughts turned to my morning meal

And walking on the solid earth

I soon attained my father’s hearth

Where on the threshold stopping short  

I suddenly was lost in thought

For something told me come what may

I’d dream no more of Dulcinë