Deny me the vision, I perish;
Rob me of dream and I die;
Life void of vision and dreaming
Is life without sun in the sky.
Oh, blind my rapt eyes in your hatred,
Submerge me with want and cold care,
But so long as you leave me my dreaming
I'll laugh at the demon despair.
No dungeon was dark enough ever
To bar me from beauty and light,
So long as I still have my dreaming,
My soul will not wander in night.
So leave me the dream, I beseech you—
Though it seem but wraithlike and frail—
For if I be guided by vision,
I dare against all things prevail.
