The pleasures of imagination. A poem / In three books.

  • Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770.
Date:
1754
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pleasures of imagination. A poem / In three books. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/144 (page 21)
    Unbidden {trains ; even fo did nature’s hand To certain fpecies of eternal things. Attune the finer organs of the mind : 115 So the glad impulfe of congenial pow’rs. Or of fweet found, or fair proportion’d form. The grace of motion, or the bloom of light. Thrills thro’ imagination’s tender frame, From nerve to nerve : all naked and alive 120 They catch the fpreading rays : till now the foul At length difclofes every tuneful fpring, To that harmonious movement from without Refponfive. Then the inexprefiive {train Diffufes its inchantment: fancy dreams 12 5 Of facred fountains and Elyfian groves, And vales of blifs: the intellectual pow’r Bends from his awful throne a wondTing ear, And fmiles: the paflions gently footh’d away. Sink to divine repofe, and love and joy 130 Alone are waking •, love and joy, ferene As airs that fan the fummer. O ! attend. Whoe’er thou art, whom thefe delights can touch, Whofe candid bofom the refining love Qf nature warms, O! liften to my fong; B 3 J35