AH, was it all a fantasy,
You in your distant stall,
The silver stream of melody
Which floated through the hall,
And I, in my obscurer place,
Gazing upon your flower face?
Around you how the music clung
And trembled, till a sea
Of passion was unbound and swung
Between your face and me;
And you were hidden from my sight,
Plunged into waves of blackest night.
And when the strife and tumult ceased,
The music wandered far,
From all its human load released,
To moon and evening star,
Where a few notes most clear and true
Pierced the deep Heaven's deepest blue.
Ah, was it all a fantasy!
The outer world we reach,
As cold and distant as may be,
A stranger, each to each;
But in my heart a sound so sweet,
All Paradise is in the street.