Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume III/The Poet’s Past

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE USUAL DESTINY OF THE IMAGINATION.

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 their contrast with existing things;
The more his power, the greater is his grief.
Are we then fallen from some noble star,
Whose consciousness is as an unknown curse;
And we feel capable of happiness
Only to know it is not of our sphere?

Blanchard’s title is:

THE POET’S PAST

From The History of the Lyre in The Venetian Bracelet