The pleasures of imagination. A poem / In three books.

  • Mark Akenside
Date:
1754
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pleasures of imagination. A poem / In three books. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    82/144 (page 78)
    Father of gods and mortals ! whofe right arm With reins eternal guides the moving heav’ns. Bend thy propitious ear. Behold well-pleas’d 450 I feek to finilh thy divine decree. With frequent fteps I vifit yonder feat Of man, thy offspring ^ from the tender feeds Of juftice and of wifdom, to evolve The latent honours of his generous frames 455 Till thy conducting hand thall raife his lot From earth’s dim fcene to thefe asthereal walks, The temple of thy glory. But not me. Not my directing voice he oft requires* Or hears delighted : this inchanting maid, 460 Th’ affociate thou haft giv’n me, her alone He loves, O Father! abfent, her he craves % And but for her glad prefence ever join’d. Rejoices not in mine : that all my hopes This thy benignant purpofe to fulfil, 46^ I deem uncertain *, and my daily cares Unfruitful all and vain, unlefs by thee Still farther aided in the work divine. She