From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring — From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone — And all I lov’d — I lov’d alone —

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring — From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone — And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were - I have not seen
As others saw - I could not bring
My passions from a common spring -

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

From my youth upwards
My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men,
Nor look'd upon the earth with human eyes;
The thirst of their ambition was not mine,
The aim of their existence was not mine;
My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers
Made me a stranger.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.

Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.

No one knows you like a person with whom you've shared a childhood. No one will ever understand you in quite the same way. (p84)

All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities. I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of.

I was a solitary child who lived in a world of words and music, of imagination and the arts and I felt keenly the vast divide between myself and the children about me. It felt very much as if I’d been absent on the day they gave out the handbook on how to relate to other children and how to be a part of the group. It was only as an adult that I found other people who saw and experienced the world as I do.

My earliest memory is of feeling different. My parents told me that I wasn't like other children.

When I was a little girl, I believed that my life would somehow be different from the lives of everyone around me

Alone am I, and alone I wish to be;
Alone my sweet love has left me.
Alone am I, without friend or mate,
Alone am I, mournful and angry.