Yet do I feel at times my mind decline,[186]

But with a sense of its decay: I see190

Unwonted lights along my prison shine,

And a strange Demon,[187] who is vexing me

With pilfering pranks and petty pains, below

The feeling of the healthful and the free;

But much to One, who long hath suffered so,

Sickness of heart, and narrowness of place,

And all that may be borne, or can debase.

I thought mine enemies had been but Man,

But Spirits may be leagued with them—all Earth

Abandons—Heaven forgets me;—in the dearth200

Of such defence the Powers of Evil can—

It may be—tempt me further,—and prevail

Against the outworn creature they assail.

Why in this furnace is my spirit proved,

Like steel in tempering fire? because I loved?

Because I loved what not to love, and see,

Was more or less than mortal, and than me.