1. Alone

From childhood’s 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 lov’d — I lov’d alone — 

Then — in my childhood — in the dawn 

Of a most stormy life — was drawn 

From ev’ry 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 pass’d 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 —