Imagination

(From “New Year’s Eve”)

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.