Phantastes, a Faerie Romance for Men and Women

Through the realms of the monarch Sun Creeps a world, whose course had begun, On a weary path with a weary pace, Before the Earth sprang forth on her race: But many a time the Earth had sped Around the path she still must tread, Ere the elder planet, on leaden wing, Once circled the court of the planet's king. There, in that lonely and distant star

Thou dreamest: on a rock thou art, High o'er the broken wave; Thou fallest with a fearful start But not into thy grave; For, waking in the morning's light, Thou smilest at the vanished night

The sun's eye Is fierce at noon; Thou and I Will rest full soon. And new strength New work will meet; Till, at length, Long rest is sweet.

She went like a radiance through the dark wood, which was henceforth bright to me, from simply knowing that such a creature was in it.

Then first I knew the delight of being lowly; of saying to myself, "I am what I am, nothing more." "I have failed," I said, "I have lost myself—would it had been my shadow."

but when you come to live every day in the midst of absurdity, it is far less easy to behave respectfully to it.

My representation of it must resemble a translation from a rich and powerful language, capable of embodying the thoughts of a splendidly developed people, into the meagre and half-articulate speech of a savage tribe.

Self will come to life even in the slaying of self; but there is ever something deeper and stronger than it, which will emerge at last from the unknown abysses of the soul:

But, alas! it is like trying to reconstruct a forest out of broken branches and withered leaves.