...rocks a natural bower, Beside a sparkling rivulet he stretched His languid limbs. A vision on his sleep There came, a dream of hopes that never yet Had flushed...soul Heard in the calm of thought; its music long, His inmost sense suspended in its web Of many-coloured woof and shifting hues. Knowledge and truth...

...Doppelganger motif of the self and its feminine counterpart that would become a hallmark of his poetry: He dreamed a veiled maid Sate near him, talking in...voice of his own soul Heard in the calm of thought Knowledge and truth and virtue were her theme, And lofty hopes of divine liberty, Thoughts the most...

...enamored of an ideal that is patently a projection of his own ego, or soul, a "fair fiend" (1.297) whose "voice was like the voice of his own soul / Heard in the calm of thought" (ll.153-54) and is driven on a narcissistic quest to locate in the material world a being who can only...

...the poem implies a slightly different interpretation of the maiden's genesis: A vision on his sleep There came, a dream of hopes that never yet Had flushed...voice of his own soul Heard in the calm of thought. 'Alastor' (149-54) In the same way that meaning previously formed itself 'on' the poet's mind, the...

...Shelleyan poet in Alastor dreams of an encounter with his ideal lover, she takes a moment to moralize: Her voice was like the voice of his own soul Heard in the calm of thought . . . Knowledge and truth and virtue were her theme, And lofty hopes of divine liberty, Thoughts the...