XLIII.

I wrought and rested; it was all in vain.

My highest consolation was the hope

That hard-earn’d sleep might hold me long in dreams

Where evermore my soul might with her dwell,

Though every morn I seem’d yet more alone.

Awake, asleep, throned constant o’er my heart,

I served this image all intangible,

This photographic fantasy of truth,

This fairy nothingness of vanish’d fact,

A shape to love, minute yet mighty still,

To senses nothing, but to spirit all.

Ballads and Other Poems Fourth Edition, Revised · 第 250 / 302 题