University of Virginia Library

IMAGINATION

Perennial source of rapturous pleasure, hail!
Whose inexhaustive stores can never fail;
Thou ardent inmate of the poet's brain,
Bright as the sun and restless as the main,
From all material Nature's stores at will
Creating, blending, and arranging still;
Things in themselves both beautiful and grand
Receive fresh lustre from thy kindling hand;
And even those whose abstract charms are few,
Thy spell-like touch arrays in colours bright and new.
O! thou art Poetry's informing soul,
Detach'd from thee she stagnates and is dull;
She has no sweets without thee, and from thee
Derives her magic and her majesty;
Thou art th' essential adjunct of her charms,
'Tis by thy aid that she transports and warms:
Nor will I e'er with that weak sect concur,
Who on obscurity alone confer
Thy misapplied and prostituted name—
A false and spurious and ungrounded claim!—
Construct a mass of thoughts uncouth and wild,
Their words involv'd, and meaning quite exil'd;
A mazy labyrinth without a clue,
Wherein they lose themselves and readers too;
The crude abortions of a heated brain,
Where sense and symmetry are sought in vain!
But images both bright and sorted well,
And perspicuity, that crowning spell,
Fervor chastis'd by judgment and by taste,
And language vivid, elegant, and chaste—
These form the poet; in such garb array'd,
Then, Fancy, all thy beauties are display'd;
We feel thy loveliness and own thy sway,
Confess thy magic pow'r, and praise the glowing lay!