Since his childhood, the speaker says, he has been unlike others. His upbringing—his emotions—did not develop in a typical family setting. In fact, he was alone most of the time, a melancholy child. Everything he loved, he says, he loved alone. His temperament and personality came from every "depth of good and ill" (line 11) around him—from violent torrents and calm fountains, from red cliffs, the sun, lightning, thunder, and a cloud shaped like a demon.