Paul Laurence Dunbar

Why Fades a Dream?

Why fades a dream?

An iridescent ray

Flecked in between the tryst

Of night and day.

Why fades a dream?—

Of consciousness the shade

Wrought out by lack of light and made

Upon life's stream.

Why fades a dream?


That thought may thrive,

So fades the fleshless dream;

Lest men should learn to trust

The things that seem.

So fades a dream,

That living thought may grow

And like a waxing star-beam glow

Upon life's stream—

So fades a dream.