As one might love a dream; a phantom-fair

Of something exquisitely strange and rare, 25

Which all were glad to look on, men and maids,

Yet no one claimed—as oft, in dewy glades

The peering primrose, like a sudden gladness,

Gleams on the soul, yet unregarded fades;—

The joy is ours, but all its own the sadness. 30

’Tis vain to say—her worst of grief is only

The common lot, which all the world have known;

To her ’tis more, because her heart is lonely,