Stanzas ["Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!"]

By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1797–1851

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

I will not ask a dearer bliss;

Come with the starry beams, my love,

And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

’Twas thus, as ancient fables tell,

Love visited a Grecian maid,

Till she disturbed the sacred spell,

And woke to find her hopes betrayed.

But gentle sleep shall veil my sight,

And Psyche’s lamp shall darkling be,

When, in the visions of the night,

Thou dost renew thy vows to me.

Then come to me in dreams, my love,

I will not ask a dearer bliss;

Come with the starry beams, my love,

And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

Biography

The most eloquent summary of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's position in English letters is still Leigh Hunt's much-quoted couplet from "The Blue-Stocking Revels": "And Shelley, fourfam'd,—for her parents, her lord, / And the poor lone impossible monster abhorr'd." Though recent studies have shown some appreciation of Mary Shelley by her own lights, the four "fames" Hunt mentioned have tended to outshine them. When not known as . . .

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