The poet doesn't want to think about his younger ages. He might have lived a wonderful life filled with pleasures. But now he is older, so he
thinks now he gets not pleasure but happiness. Happiness and pleasures are different. Pleasure is connected with our sensory organs; but happiness is related with our inner person. Now the poet realizes that
the life he loved was a shadow, a shadow of real life. Now he revives
and wishes to live a life which is sublime and beautiful.
