1. ۱Not long ago, the writer of these lines,
2. ۲In the mad pride of intellectuality,
3. ۳Maintained "the power of words"--denied that ever
4. ۴A thought arose within the human brain
5. ۵Beyond the utterance of the human tongue:
6. ۶And now, as if in mockery of that boast,
7. ۷Two words--two foreign soft dissyllables--
8. ۸Italian tones, made only to be murmured
9. ۹By angels dreaming in the moonlit "dew
10. ۱۰That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill,"--
11. ۱۱Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart,
12. ۱۲Unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought,
13. ۱۳Richer, far wilder, far diviner visions
14. ۱۴Than even the seraph harper, Israfel,
15. ۱۵(Who has "the sweetest voice of all God's creatures,")
16. ۱۶Could hope to utter. And I! my spells are broken.
17. ۱۷The pen falls powerless from my shivering hand.
18. ۱۸With thy dear name as text, though hidden by thee,
19. ۱۹I cannot write--I cannot speak or think--
20. ۲۰Alas, I cannot feel; for 'tis not feeling,
21. ۲۱This standing motionless upon the golden
22. ۲۲Threshold of the wide-open gate of dreams,
23. ۲۳Gazing, entranced, adown the gorgeous vista,
24. ۲۴And thrilling as I see, upon the right,
25. ۲۵Upon the left, and all the way along,
26. ۲۶Amid empurpled vapors, far away
27. ۲۷To where the prospect terminates--_thee only_!