In youth have I known one with whom the Earth,
In secret, communing held as he with it,
In daylight, and in beauty from his birth:
Whose fervid, flick'ring torch of life was lit

From the sun and stars, whence he had drawn forth

A passionate light- such for his spirit was fit-
And yet that spirit knew not—in the hour
Of its own fervor what had o'er it power.

5

30

35

40

2.

Perhaps it may be that my mind is wrought
To a fever by the moonbeam that hangs o'er,
But I will half believe that wild light fraught
With more of sov'reignty than ancient lore
Hath ever told - or is it of a thought

The unembodied essence, and no more,

That with a quick'ning spell doth o'er us pass

As dew of the night-time, o'er the summer grass? of "Sperits of

3.

Doth o'er us pass, when, as th' expanding eye
To the lov'd object so the tear to the lid
Will start, which lately slept in apathy?

And yet it need not be

that object — hid

From us in life- but common which doth lie
Each hour before us - but then only, bid

With a strange sound, as of a harp-string broken,
T'awake us

- 'Tis a symbol and a token

4.

the £.end", f..

Of what in other worlds shall be - and giv'n

In beauty by our God, to those alone

Who otherwise would fall from life and Heav'n,
Drawn by their heart's passion, and that tone,
That high tone of the spirit which hath striv'n,
Tho' not with Faith—with godliness—whose throne
With desp❜rate energy 't hath beaten down;
Wearing its own deep feeling as a crown.

10 fever: ferver (1827).

(1827)

A DREAM

In visions of the dark night

I have dreamed of joy departed,
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,

So trembled from afar,

What could there be more purely bright

In Truth's day-star?

(1827)

Title Omitted in 1827.

1 1827 prefixes the following stanza:

A wilder'd being from my birth
My spirit spurn'd control,

But now, abroad on the wide earth,

Where wand'rest thou my soul?

5 Ah: And (1827, 1829).

13 storm and: misty (1827).

14 trembled from: dimly shone (1827).

"THE HAPPIEST DAY, THE HAPPIEST HOUR" 31

"THE HAPPIEST DAY, THE HAPPIEST HOUR"

The happiest day, the happiest hour

My sear❜d and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,

Title The Lake (1827); omitted in 1831, the poem being incorporated in Tamerlane (after 1.74).

1 In spring of youth: In youth's spring (1827, 1829, M.M.), For in those days (1831).

2 world: earth (1827).

6 tall: sultan-like (1831).

9 mystic wind went: wind would pass me (1827), black wind murmur'd (1829, 1831), ghastly wind went (M.M.).

10 Murmuring in: In its stilly (1827), In a dirge of (1829, 1831), In a dirge-like (M.M.).

11 Thenah, then, I: My infant spirit (1827, 1829, 1831).

12 the lone: that lone (1831, M. M.).

15 And a feeling undefin'd (1827).

16 Could teach or: Should ever (1829), Could ever (1831).

16, 17 Springing from a darken'd mind (1827).

17 were: be (1829); although the love: Ada! tho' it (1831).