My thoughts by night are often filled
With visions false as fair:
For in the past alone, read more

My thoughts by night are often filled
With visions false as fair:
For in the past alone, I build
My castles in the air.

So little distant dangers seem:
So we mistake the future's face,
Ey'd thro' Hope's deluding glass;
read more

So little distant dangers seem:
So we mistake the future's face,
Ey'd thro' Hope's deluding glass;
As yon summits soft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which to those who journey near,
Barren, brown, and rough appear.

Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages, crown not on my soul.

Visions of glory, spare my aching sight!
Ye unborn ages, crown not on my soul.

The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme!
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.

The people's prayer, the glad diviner's theme!
The young men's vision, and the old men's dream.

Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.

Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimaeras dire.

O visions ill foreseen! Better had I
Liv'd ignorant of future, so had borne
My part of read more

O visions ill foreseen! Better had I
Liv'd ignorant of future, so had borne
My part of evil only.

But shapes that come not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid.

But shapes that come not at an earthly call,
Will not depart when mortal voices bid.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth
the law, happy is he.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth
the law, happy is he.

Our revels are now ended. These our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are read more

Our revels are now ended. These our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all of which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Is rounded with a sleep.