Listen! ye know that I am mad, And ye will listen! — wizard dreams Were with me! — all is true that seems!— From dreams alone can truth be had— In dreams divinest lore is taught, For the eye, no more distraught, Rests most calmly, and the ear, Of sound unconscious, may apply Its attributes unknown, to hear The music of philosophy! Thus am I wisest in my sleep, For thoughts and things, which day light brings, Come to the spirit sad and single, But verse and prose, and joys and woes Inextricably mingle, When the hushed frame is silent in repose! Twilight and moonlight, mist and storm, Black night, and fire-eyed hurricane, And crested lightning, and, the snows That mock the sunbeams, and the rain Which bounds on earth with big drops warm, All are round me while I spell The legend of sweet Christabel!
