Analysis of The Pleasures Of Imagination
Mark Akenside 1721 (Newcastle upon Tyne) – 1770
With what attractive charms this goodly frame
Of Nature touches the consenting hearts
Of mortal men; and what the pleasing stores
Which beauteous imitation thence derives
To deck the poet's, or the painter's toil;
My verse unfolds. Attend, ye gentle pow'rs
Of musical delight! and while I sing
Your gifts, your honours, dance around my strain.
Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast,
Indulgent Fancy! from the fruitful banks
Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull
Fresh flowers and dews to sprinkle on the turf
Where Shakspeare lies, be present: and with thee
Let Fiction come, upon her vagrant wings
Wafting ten thousand colours through the air,
Which, by the glances of her magic eye,
She blends and shifts at will, through countless forms,
Her wild creation. Goddess of the lyre,
Which rules the accents of the moving sphere,
Wilt thou, eternal Harmony! descend
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 conduct
The wandering 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.
...
Or shall I mention, where celestial Truth
Her awful light discloses, to bestow
A more majestic pomp on Beauty's frame?
For man loves knowledge, and the beams of Truth
More welcome touch his understanding's eye,
Than all the blandishments of sound his ear,
Than all of taste his tongue. Nor ever yet
The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues
To me have shone so pleasing, as when first
The hand of Science pointed out the path
In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west
Fall on the watery cloud, whose darksome veil
Involves the orient; and that trickling shower
Piercing through every crystalline convex
Of clustering dew-drops to their flight oppos'd,
Recoil at length where concave all behind
The internal surface on each glassy orb
Repeals their forward passage into air;
That thence direct they seek the radiant goal
From which their course began; and, as they strike
In different lines the gazer's obvious eye,
Assume a different lustre, through the brede
Of colours changing from the splendid rose
To the pale violet's dejected hue.
Scheme | ABXXXBXXCXXXXDEFXXXXXXXXXXGFXD HXAHFGXXXXCXXXXXXEXXFXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (22%) |
Metre | 1101011101 1101000101 1101010101 11010101 1101010101 1101011101 1100010111 111110111 11011100101 0101010101 1101110101 11001110101 111110011 1101010101 101101101 1101010101 1101111101 0101010101 1101010101 1101010001 0111011111 01010011101 0101011111 0101001111 110111101 0100110101 1111011111 1101110111 0111000111 011001011 1 1111010101 0101010101 010101111 1111000111 1101111 1101001111 1111111101 01011011 1111110111 0111010101 0101110101 1101001111 01010011010 1011001001 11001111101 0111101101 00101011101 0111010011 11011101001 1111010111 01001011001 01010010101 111010101 10110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,493 |
Words | 399 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 30, 25 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 944 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 198 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:02 min read
- 118 Views
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"The Pleasures Of Imagination" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/26539/the-pleasures-of-imagination>.
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