Imitation

Summary

This poem explores themes of introspection and the mysterious journey of one's early life, characterized as a dark and unfathomable tide marked by pride, mystery, and dreams. It reflects the inner thoughts and feelings of the speaker, who acknowledges possessing wild, waking thoughts about entities that remain unseen to others. These thoughts are personified as visions or dreams that the speaker chooses to control, as if casting a spell on their soul to prevent others from inheriting such visions. The poem conveys a sense of fleeting hope and the passing of bright times, which the speaker accepts with a sigh, indicating a recognition of life's transient nature and an acceptance of its impermanence without regret over their cherished thoughts.

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     A dark unfathom’d tide
     Of interminable pride—
     A mystery, and a dream,
     Should my early life seem;
     I say that dream was fraught
     With a wild, and waking thought
     Of beings that have been,
     Which my spirit hath not seen,
     Had I let them pass me by,
     With a dreaming eye!
     Let none of earth inherit
     That vision on my spirit;
     Those thoughts I would control
     As a spell upon his soul:
     For that bright hope at last
     And that light time have past,
     And my worldly rest hath gone
     With a sigh as it pass’d on
     I care not tho’ it perish
     With a thought I then did cherish.