Priscilla Jane Thompson, "An Unromantic Awakening" (1900)
I FELL asleep, and had a dream—
Which even now, doth linger near;
Methought, that in my arms, I held,
One who to me, is very dear;
I drank her warm breath rapt'ously,
As her soft arms my neck entwined—
She pressed a kiss— it was too much!
I woke in trembling joy divine.
It was too much, indeed, for me;
What were my feelings, when I found—
The certainty of my fair love,
Was, cuddling in my lap, my hound?
I rose and dashed him savagely
Upon the ground, with one sound kick—
And as my slumb'ring sense returned,
I saw him marching, double quick.
Published in Ethiope Lays, 1900