'Twas forty-years ago, when the moon was black
(Ah! I remember quite well, quite well);
When sudden my eyes grew strangely dull:
I was looking in the grinning dark…
'Twas but mysterious, for my eyes lay still
I was caught in a pale dark mist: chilled,
I was as a gibbous moon, a ghost of woe;
I think I was dead for a moment, that's true.