though I knew not in what time or place, Methought that I had often met with you

As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood, 

And ebb into a former life, or seem 

To lapse far back in some confusèd 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 looked upon your face, 

Our thought gave answer, each to each, so true, 

Opposèd mirrors each reflecting each—

That though I knew not in what time or place, 

Methought that I had often met with you, 

And each had lived in either's heart and speech. 

 

[Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson FRS {1809-1892} 'Sonnet', from Tennyson in Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets]