Only in sleep

Only in sleep I see their faces,

Children I played with when I was a child

Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,

Annie with ringlets warm and wild.

Only in sleep Time is forgotten

What may have come to them, who can know?

Yet we played last night as long ago

And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.

The years had not sharpened their smooth

round faces,

I met their eyes and found them mild

Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,

And for them am I too a child?