"Dreams" [1869]
Words -- anon.
Music by
F[rederic]. W[oodman]. Root [1846-1916]

Chicago, IL: ROOT & CADY, 67 Washington Street
[Source: p. 13 from "The Pacific Glee Book"]

1. When the chains of slumber bind us
In their golden coils at night;
When we’ve left the world behind us,
In a dreamy spirit flight;
Then, O then, when wrapp’d in slumber,
Do our hearts ecstatic leap,
At the beauties without number,
That appear to us in sleep.

2. Would that waking hours could ever
Peopled be with joys as sweet!
We would wish to live forever,
And a thousand lives repeat,
But alas! such hours seem dreary,
And the world a barren spot,
Of which we would soon get weary,
If in dreams ’twere not forgot.

3. Sorrows come in throngs to meet us,
In this busy world of ours;
Those who would with garlands greet us,
Give us thorns amid the flow’rs.
E’en in dreams at night are given
To our senses forms that fright;
Only now and then is heaven
Pictured to the dreamer’s sight.