FROM CHILDHOOD HOUR

                 DANISH BHAT

From childhood's hour I have not been 

As others were; I have not seen 

As others saw; I could not bring 

My passions from a common spring. 

From the same source I have not taken 

My sorrow; I could not awaken 

My heart to joy at the same tone; 

And all I loved, I loved alone. 

Then- in my childhood, in the dawn 

Of a most stormy life- was drawn 

From every depth of good and ill 

The mystery which binds me still: 

From the torrent, or the fountain, 

From the red cliff of the mountain, 

From the sun that round me rolled 

In its autumn tint of gold, 

From the lightning in the sky 

As it passed me flying by, 

From the thunder and the storm, 

And the cloud that took the form 

(When the rest of Heaven was blue) 

Of a demon in my view.