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1829(APPROXIMATELY)[ALONE]
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From childhood�s hour I have not been As others were� I have not seen As others saw� I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I lov�d, I lov�d alone. Then� in my childhood� in the dawn Of a most stormy life� was drawn From ev�ry depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that �round me roll�d In its autumn tint of gold�� From the lightning in the sky As it pass�d me flying by� From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view. |
Elizabeth it is in vain you say "Love not" � thou sayest it in so sweet a way: In vain those words from thee or L. E. L. Zantippe's talents had enforced so well: Ah! if that language from thy heart arise, Breathe it less gently forth � and veil thine eyes. Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried To cure his love � was cured of all beside � His folly � pride � and passion � for he died. |
Elizabeth � it surely is most fit (Logic and common usage so commanding) In thy own book that first thy name be writ, Zeno and other sages notwithstanding : And I have other reasons for so doing Besides my innate love of contradiction : Each poet � if a poet � in pursuing The muses thro' their bowers of Truth or Fiction, Has studied very little of his part, Read nothing, written less � in short's a fool Endued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art, Being ignorant of one important rule, Employed in even the theses of the school � Called �� I forget the heathenish Greek name � (Called any thing, its meaning is the same) "Always write first things uppermost in the heart" |
It was my choice or chance or curse To adopt the cause for better or worse And with my worldly goods & wit And soul & body worship it |