sat at
midnight
the rhyme is only in your imagination . You promised not to interrupt me , and you have already snapped asunder the gossamer threads of as sweet a dream as was ever spun from a poet 's brain . '' `` It certainly did rhyme ! '' `` This was the reverie of the Student Hieronymus , as he sat at midnight in his chamber , with his hands clasped together , and resting upon anopen volume , which he should have been reading . His pale face was raised , and the pupils of his eyes dilated as if the spirit-world were open before him , and some beauteous vision were standing there , and drawing the student 's soul through his eyes up into Heaven , as the evening sun through parting summer-clouds , seems to draw into its bosom the vapors of the earth . O , it was a sweet vision ! I can see it before me now !