Bound brain and spirit and half-closèd eyes,

In some divine sweet wonder-dream astray;

To us no sorrow or upreared dismay

Nor any discord came, but evermore

The voices of mankind, the outer roar,

Grew strange and murmurous, faint and far away.

[Pg 9]

Morning and noon and midnight exquisitely,

Wrapt with your voices, this alone we knew,

Cities might change and fall, and men might die,

Secure were we, content to dream with you,

That change and pain are shadows faint and fleet,

And dreams are real, and life is only sweet.

AN IMPRESSION.

I heard the city time-bells call

Far off in hollow towers,

And one by one with measured fall

Count out the old dead hours;

I felt the march, the silent press

Of time, and held my breath;

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