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SONNET.
[“Oh for a Muse of Fire!”]
“If the power of volition be suspended, persons may
dream while they are awake. Such is the case, when, in
an evening, looking into the fire, we let slip the reins of the
imagination, and yielding implicitly to external objects, a
succession of splendid or terrific imagery is produced by
the embers in the grate’—Buchan.
“Oh for a Muse of Fire!”
Shakespeare.
Shakespeare.
For very want of thought and occupation,
Upon my fire, as broad and high it blaz'd,
In idle and unweeting mood I gaz'd;
And, in that mass of bright and glowing things,
Fancy, which in such moments readiest springs,
Soon found materials for imagination:
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There saw I trees and towers and hills and plains,
Faces with warm smiles glowing flocks and swains,
And antic shapes of laughable creation!
And thus the poet's soul of fire contains
A store of all things bright and glorious—rais'd
By Fancy, that deft artisan, to shape
Into fair scenes and forms, that nature's best may ape.
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