“No help I sought; in sorrow turned adrift, 370
  Was hopeless, as if cast on some bare rock; [43]
  Nor morsel to my mouth that day did lift,
  Nor raised [44] my hand at any door to knock. 
  I lay where, with his drowsy mates, the cock
  From the cross-timber of an out-house hung:  375
  Dismally [45] tolled, that night, the city clock! 
  At morn my sick heart hunger scarcely stung,
  Nor to the beggar’s language could I fit [46] my tongue.

XLIII

  “So passed a second day; and, when the third
  Was come, I tried in vain the crowd’s resort. [47] 380
 —­In deep despair, by frightful wishes stirred,
  Near the sea-side I reached a ruined fort;
  There, pains which nature could no more support,
  With blindness linked, did on my vitals fall;
  And, after many interruptions short [48] 385
  Of hideous sense, I sank, [49] nor step could crawl: 
  Unsought for was the help that did my life recal. [50]

XLIV

  “Borne to a hospital, I lay with brain
  Drowsy and weak, and shattered memory; [51]
  I heard my neighbours in their beds complain 390
  Of many things which never troubled me—­
  Of feet still bustling round with busy glee,
  Of looks where common kindness had no part,
  Of service done with cold formality, [52]
  Fretting the fever round the languid heart, 395
  And groans which, as they said, might [53] make a dead man
    start.

XLV

“These things just served to stir the slumbering [54] sense, Nor pain nor pity in my bosom raised.  With strength did memory return; [55] and, thence Dismissed, again on open day I gazed, 400 At houses, men, and common light, amazed.  The lanes I sought, and, as the sun retired, Came where beneath the trees a faggot blazed; The travellers [56] saw me weep, my fate inquired, And gave me food—­and rest, more welcome, more desired. 405 [57]

XLVI

  “Rough potters seemed they, trading soberly
  With panniered asses driven from door to door;
  But life of happier sort set forth to me, [58]
  And other joys my fancy to allure—­
  The bag-pipe dinning on the midnight moor 410
  In barn uplighted; and companions boon,
  Well met from far with revelry secure
  Among the forest glades, while jocund June [59]
  Rolled fast along the sky his warm and genial moon.

XLVII