The truant Fancy was a wanderer ever.

The truant Fancy was a wanderer ever.

Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.

Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,
One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,
One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.

Sad fancies do we then affect,
In luxury of disrespect
To our own prodigal excess
read more

Sad fancies do we then affect,
In luxury of disrespect
To our own prodigal excess
Of too familiar happiness.

We figure to ourselves
The thing we like, and then we build it up
As chance will read more

We figure to ourselves
The thing we like, and then we build it up
As chance will have it, on the rock or sand:
For Thought is tired of wandering o'er the world,
And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore.

She's all my fancy painted her,
She's lovely, she's divine.

She's all my fancy painted her,
She's lovely, she's divine.

Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains,
Winning from Reason's hand the reins,
Pity and woe! for read more

Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains,
Winning from Reason's hand the reins,
Pity and woe! for such a mind
Is soft contemplative, and kind.

So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how read more

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engend'red in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.