University of Virginia Library

“What is Imagination?”
I have deem'd
That 'tis heaven's ante-chamber. A bright place
To which our spirits enter, undisrob'd
Of this world's loves and hopes, and sympathies.
A beautiful elysium, where the flowers
Are never-fading, where the genial sun
Knows neither cloud nor setting; where the spring
Of everlasting youth is gushing up,
Beneath the bowers of life, and dancing on,
Amid rich odours, to eternity.
The atmosphere is magic, as it bathes
The brow and bosom with Lethean balm;
And beauteous angels wait there, radiant
With such pure blissful life, as gushes forth
From heaven's half-open portal; and their wings
Glance ever at our bidding, swift as light,
How sweetly do they bear us in their arms
From this dull workshop of the heart and brain,
To their own blest dominion, where each breeze
Is laden with delight. How tenderly
They lay us in the arms of those we love,
While the full heart is throbbing, and the eye
Pouring from its rich depths an ardent flood
Of ecstasy, unmingled, unalloy'd.
Then hands are clasp'd, and lips are fondly press'd,
That never meet, save in that magic land;
And words are breath'd, and ecstacies are felt,
That earth knows nothing of.
There comes no doubt,
No withering suspicion, no mistrust,
Into that joyous world. All there is pure,
Faultless, and beautiful, and full of bliss.
The weight of years, the lines of withering care,
The world's impression on the weary mind,
The mildew blights, that stain the spirit's bloom,
The canker, that corrodes the hackney'd heart,
Are never felt, or even remembered there.

Youth, love and beauty, in perennial bloom,
Dwell there for ever; and the hymns of heaven
Float in rich echoes through the breathing bowers
Of this soft paradise, this dreamy land,
Where spirits meet and mingle, with the wreath
Of fond humanity, in all its bloom,
Twin'd o'er the heart and brow; while every leaf
And bud and blossom, glitters with the light,
And breathes the balm of immortality.