There is a dish to hold the sea, A brazier to contain the sun, A compass for the galaxy, A voice to wake the dead and done! That minister of ministers, Imagination, gathers up The undiscovered Universe, Like jewels in a jasper cup. Its flame can mingle north and south; Its accent with the thunder strive; The ruddy sentence of its mouth Can make the ancient dead alive. The mart of power, the fount of will, The form and mould of every star, The source and bound of good and ill, The key of all the things that are, Imagination, new and strange In every age, can turn the year; Can shift the poles and lightly change The mood of men, the world's career. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GORSE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON IN APIA BAY by CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 5 by ALFRED TENNYSON THE 'STAY AT HOME'S' PLAINT, 1878 by GEORGE AUGUSTUS BAKER JR. SONG BY AN OLD SHEPHERD by WILLIAM BLAKE IN SOME FAR DISTANT TIME by CATHERINE BRADSHAW TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. I COME FORTH FROM THE DARKNESS by EDWARD CARPENTER |