From childhoods 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 loved - I loved alone-
Thou? - in my childhood - in the dawn
of a most stormy life - was drawn
from every 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 passed 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.