'In my Dreams I see a Castle'

In my dreams I see a castle standing by the Northern seas,Where the long Atlantic rollers lash the rugged Orcades,And a stately lady walking up and down beneath the trees.

Why does the lady wander there, in robes of white array'd?Why does she carry in her hand a sharp and shining blade,While her features work with agony, her eyes with fear dismay'd?

She slowly passes through the grove of wind-swept melody,Till she stands beside the ocean, and then, full suddenly,She cuts her heart from out her breast, and casts it in the sea.'O western wind! O wandering wave! seek Southern summer seas,Bear him my bleeding heart from these far Northern castle-leas,And tell him I love him now much better than all these.'

But the heart was passion-weighted—passion still unpurged of pride—On the bosom of the billows it could not safely ride;It never reach'd those summer seas, but sank beneath the tide.

The lady wanders still beside the dreary Northern sea,And cries unto the wind and waves: 'Give back my heart to me.'But the wind and waves make answer: 'That can never, never be.'