Forlorn! the very word is like a bell To toll me back from thee to my sole self! Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well As she is fam’d to do, deceiving elf. Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream, Up the hillside; and now ‘tis buried deep In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream? Fled is that music: – Do I wake or sleep?
[80]
[75]
GLOSSARY [2] hemlock: a poisonous plant
[3] opiate: a drug containing opium (with morphine-like effects)
[4] Lethe-wards: in Greek mythology people who drank from the river Lethe experienced extreme forgetfulness
[7] Dryad: a nymph (a spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden)
[8] melodious: pleasant-sounding [9] beechen: beech trees
[50] murmurous: soft-sounding [53] mused: thoughtful; contemplative [60] requiem: song of remembrance [60] sod: earth
[64] emperor: sovereign ruler of great power and rank
[66] Ruth: a Biblical figure who left home to marry a man who then died, leaving her stranded in a strange place
[69] casements: windows [70] perilous: dangerous [70] faery: fairy [70] forlorn: unhappy; sorrowful [74] fam’d: famous [75] plaintive: mournful; sad [75] anthem: song [78] valley-glades: low area of open space
