Alfred Lord Tennyson
To ­ ­ (”As when, with downcast eyes...”)
As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood,
And ebb into a former life, or seem
To lapse far back in some confused dream
To states of mystical similitude;
If one but speaks or hems or stirs his chair,
Ever the wonder waxeth more and more,
So that we say, "All this hath been before,
All this hath been, I know not when or where".
So, friend, when first I look'd upon your face,
Our thought gave answer each to each, so true ­
Opposed mirrors each reflecting each ­
Altho' I knew not in what time or place,
Methought that I had often met with you,
And each had lived in the other's mind and speech.