Imagination



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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 23, 2023

38 sec read
142

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG HIHI
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 662
Words 126
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

John Davidson

John Wynn Davidson was a brigadier general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and an American Indian fighter. more…

All John Davidson poems | John Davidson Books

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