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| Intimations of a Previous Existence Methinks we must have known some former state More glorious than our present, and the heart Is haunted with dim memories, shadows left By past magnificence; and hence we pine With vain aspirings, hopes that fill the eyes With bitter tears of their own vanity. Remembrance makes the poet: 'tis the past Lingering within him, with a keener sense Than is upon the thoughts of common men Of what has been, that fills the actual world With unreal likenesses of lovely shapes, That were and are not; and the fairer they The more the contrast with existing things: The more his power, the greater is his grief. - Are we then fallen from some noble star, Whose consciousness is an unknown curse, And we feel capable of happiness Only to know it is not our sphere? |
| Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1803-1838) |