[BNP/E3, 79 – 15]

A.

‘Twas a soft moment as when the mind clacking

Coherent thought, pain’s source

When at the peep |*baton| {…} tracking

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And fancies wide around our selves did cling

Like time-forgotten birds for ever on the wing.

There was no sound, no semblance of a wave

In the strange sea the {…} show that bound

There was a rock, me-seemed, no cape no cape[1]

In the weird land whose presence did astound[2]

[15^v]

A sensible silence crept

Upon our {…}

{…} the steps of nothingness adorn

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And then there came a sleeping, a suspension

Of life, of thought, of all that we suppose

{…} extension

As music losing the bonds we impose

A parted curtain then seemed to disclose

Things never seen before of mortal eyne

Waves of a mystic sea that fell and rose

Were heard yet not by ears[3]. We did divine

Things deeper than the thoughts that in us weep and pine.

[1] no cape ^{/no cave\}

[2] astound ^/swound\

[3] not by ears ^{/by no sense\}