WE have two lives about us,
Two worlds in which we dwell;
Within us, and without us,
Alternate Heaven and Hell:
Without, the sombre Real,
Within our heart of hearts, the beautiful Ideal!
I stand between the portals of the two,
Fettered and cramped with many a heavy chain,
Whose links I strive to rend, but all in vain,
So strong the False that holds me from the True;
In dreams alone my spirit wanders o'er
The starry threshold of the world of bliss,
And lives the life that Fate denies in this,
Which may have once been mine, but will be — nevermore!