To--'As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood...'

Reprinted without alteration as first of the 'Early Sonnets' in 1872; subsequently in the twelfth line "That tho'" was substituted for "Altho'," and the last line was altered to--

"And either lived in either's heart and speech,"

and "hath" was not italicised.

  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.