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“With the vain shadow of the past,230
“As is Mazeppa to the last.

VI.

“We met—we gazed—I saw, and sigh’d,
“She did not speak, and yet replied;
“There are ten thousand tones and signs
“We hear and see, but none defines—
“Involuntary sparks of thought,
“Which strike from out the heart o’erwrought,
“And form a strange intelligence,
“Alike mysterious and intense,
“Which link the burning chain that binds,240
“Without their will, young hearts and minds;
“Conveying, as the electric wire,
“We know not how, the absorbing fire.—
“I saw, and sigh’d—in silence wept,
“And still reluctant distance kept,
“Until I was made known to her,
“And we might then and there confer
“Without suspicion—then, even then,

“I long’d, and was resolved to speak;