Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/21

Book I. Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves, And vales of bliss: the intellectual pow'r Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear, And smiles: the passions, gently sooth'd away, Sink to divine repose, and love and joy Alone are waking; love and joy, serene As airs that fan the summer. O! attend, Whoe'er thou art, whom these delights can touch, Whose candid bosom the refining love Of nature warms, O! listen to my song; And I will guide thee to her fav'rite walks, And teach thy solitude her voice to hear, And point her loveliest features to thy view.


 * Know then, whate'er of nature's pregnant stores,

Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms With love and admiration thus inflame The pow'rs of fancy, her delighted sons To three illustrious orders have referr'd; Three sister-graces, whom the painter's hand, The poet's tongue confesses; the sublime, The wonderful, the fair. I see them dawn! I see the radiant visions, where they rise, More lovely than when Lucifer displays His beaming forehead thro' the gates of morn, To lead the train of Phœbus and the spring. Say,