In youth have I known one with whom the Earth, From the sun and stars, whence he had drawn forth A passionate light- such for his spirit was fit- 5 30 35 40 2. Perhaps it may be that my mind is wrought 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 And yet it need not be that object — hid From us in life- but common which doth lie With a strange sound, as of a harp-string broken, - '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, 10 fever: ferver (1827). (1827) A DREAM In visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed, Ah! what is not a dream by day That holy dream that holy dream, 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 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, 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). |