The Mind

Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of

by Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1823–1911

From An American Anthology, 1787–1900, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman (1900)

The Mind

Now all the cloudy shapes that float and lie
Within this magic globe we call the brain
Fold quite away, condense, withdraw, refrain,
And show it tenantless — an empty sky.
Return, O parting visions, pass not by;
Nor leave me vacant still, with strivings vain,
Longing to grasp at your dim garment's train,
And be drawn on to sleep's immunity.

I lie and pray for fancies hovering near;
Oblivion's kindly troop, illusions blest;
Dim, trailing phantoms in a world too clear;
Soft, downy, shadowy forms, my spirit's nest;
The warp and woof of sleep; till, freed from fear,
I drift in sweet enchantment back to rest.

MLA

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. “Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/higginson_tw/5/.

Chicago

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. “Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made Of.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/higginson_tw/5/.

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