Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/16

Indulgent Fancy! from the fruitful Banks10
Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull
Fresh flow'rs and dews to sprinkle on the turf
Where Shakespeare lies, be present: and with thee
Let Fiction come, upon her vagrant wings
Wafting ten thousand colours thro' the air,15
And, by the glances of her magic eye,
Combining each in endless, fairy forms,
Her wild creation. Goddess of the lyre
Which rules the Accents of the moving sphere,
Wilt thou, eternal Harmony! descend,20
And join this festive train? for with thee comes
The guide, the guardian of their lovely sports,
Majestic Truth; and where TRUTH deigns to come,
Her sister Liberty will not be far.
Be present all ye Genii who conduct25
The wand'ring footsteps of the youthful bard,
New to your springs and shades: who touch his ear
With finer sounds: who heighten to his eye
The bloom of nature, and before him turn
The gayest, happiest attitude of things.30

Oft have the laws of each poetic strain
The critic-verse imploy'd; yet still unsung
Lay this prime subject, tho' importing most
A poet's name: for fruitless is th' attempt,
By dull obedience and the curb of rules,35

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