True above ills, and frailty, and all fear—

Perchance a shadow of his own career

Whose youth was darkly prisoned and long twined

By serpent-sorrow, till white Love drew near,

And sweetly sang him free, and round his mind

A bright horizon threw, wherein no grief may wind.

I saw a tower builded on a lake,

Mocked by its inverse shadow, dark and deep—

That seemed a still intenser night to make,

Wherein the quiet waters sunk to sleep,—