Dear Familiar Phantoms
Again you come ye hovering forms
I find as early to my clouded sight ye shone
Shall i attempt this once to sieze and bind ye
Still o'er my heart is that illusion thrown
Are we still standing
Or if further we're ascending
You crowd more near then be the reign assigned ye
And sway me from your misty shadow zone
My bosom thrills with youthful passion shaken
From magic airs that round your march awaken
All is turning...
Trees and rocks with grinning faces
All is whirling...
Wandering lights that spin in mazes
Of joyous days you bring the blissful vision
The dear familiar phantoms rise again
And like an old and half-extinct tradition
Renewed is pain with mournful repetition
First love returns with friendship in his train
And names the good whose cheating fortune tore them
Now life tracks his devious labyrinthine chain
And left me to deplore them