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?

 

In visions of the dark night

I have dream'd of joy departed —

But a waking dream of life and light

Hath left me broken-hearted.

 

And what is not a dream by day

To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him with a ray

Turn'd back upon the past?

 

That holy dream — that holy dream,

While all the world were chiding,

Hath cheer'd me as a lovely beam

A lonely spirit guiding —

 

What tho' that light, thro' misty night

So dimly shone afar — [page 33:]

What could there be more purely bright

In Truth's day — star?