There was a time thy voice had power to calm,
And lay the fiend within me: Let me rest
Lonely and cursed amid my wretchedness;
I have ventured all and lost—’twas Destiny!
There are dark spirits moving through the world,
Casting a saddening influence over all
Within their vortex: Such perchance is mine;
With its wild, fitful struggles, and its gleams
Now good, now evil, stronger with my strength
The eclipse of Heaven’s brightness. Who can read