Chapter XVI

This Poem is highly metaphysical. He asks whether Sorrow, which is his abiding feeling, can be such a changeling, as to alternate in his breast betwixt "calm despair" (see P. xi., 4) and "wild unrest?" (see P. xv., 4); or does she only just take this "touch of change," as calm or storm prevails? knowing no more of transient form, than does a lake that holds "the shadow of a lark," when reflected on its surface.

Being distinct from bodily pain, Sorrow is more like the reflection than the thing reflected. But the shock he has received has made his mind confused, and he is like a ship that strikes on a rock and founders. He becomes a

"delirious man,
Whose fancy fuses old and new,
And flashes into false and true,
And mingles all without a plan."[16]