A Tennyson Tuesday

As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood,
And ebb into a former life, or seem
To lapse far back in a confused dream
To states of mystical similitude;
If one but speaks or hems or stirs his chair,
Ever the wonder waxeth more and more,
So that we say ‘All this hath been before,
All this hath been, I know not when or where.’
So, friend, when first I look’d upon your face,
Our thought gave answer, each to each, so true,
Opposed mirrors each reflecting each—
Altho’ I knew not in what time or place,
Methought that I had often met with you,

And each had lived in the other’s mind and speech.