In feeding thought, wherever thought could feed)

I did not rank with those (too dull or nice,

For to my judgment such they then appeared,

Or too aspiring, thankless at the best)

Who, in this frame of human life, perceive

An object whereunto their souls are tied

In discontented wedlock; nor did e'er,

From me, those dark impervious shades, that hang

Upon the region whither we are bound,

Exclude a power to enjoy the vital beams