| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 220. Inspirations |
| By William James Dawson (b. 1854) |
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| SOMETIMES, I know not why, nor how, nor whence, | |
| A change comes over me, and then the task | |
| Of common life slips from me. Would you ask | |
| What power is this which bids the world go hence? | |
| Who knows? I only feel a faint perfume | 5 |
| Steal through the rooms of life; a saddened sense | |
| Of something lost; a music as of brooks | |
| That babble to the sea; pathetic looks | |
| Of closing eyes that in a darkened room | |
| Once dwelt on mine: I feel the general doom | 10 |
| Creep nearer, and with God I stand alone. | |
| O mystic sense of sudden quickening! | |
| Hope’s lark-song rings, or life’s deep undertone | |
| Wails through my heart—and then I needs must sing. | |
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