Sonnet Xxxiii. Poem by Henry Alford

Before the day the gleaming dawn doth flee:--
All yesternight I had a dreary dream:
Methought I walked in desert Academe
Among fallen pillars; and there came to me
All in a dim half--twilight silently
A very sad old man: his eyes were red
With over--weeping: and he cried and said,
``The light hath risen, but shineth not on me.''
Beautiful Athens, all thy loveliness
Is like the scarce--remembered burst of spring
When now the summer in her party--dress
Hath clothed the woods, and filled each living thing
With ripest joy: because upon our time
Hath risen the noon, and thou wert in the prime.