END OF AKENSIDE'S POETICAL WORKS.
THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
Book I.
Book II.
Book III.
Notes to Book I.
Notes to Book II.
Notes to Book III.
THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION.
Book I.
Book II.
Book III.
Book IV.
ODES ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS:—
Book I.—
Ode I. Preface.
Ode II. On the Winter-solstice, 1740.
Ode II. For the Winter-solstice, December 11, 1740.
As originally written.
Ode III. To a Friend, Unsuccessful in Love.
Ode IV. Affected Indifference. To the same.
Ode V. Against Suspicion.
Ode VI. Hymn to Cheerfulness.
Ode VII. On the Use of Poetry.
Ode VIII. On leaving Holland.
Ode IX. To Curio.
Ode X. To the Muse.
Ode XI. On Love. To a Friend.
Ode XII. To Sir Francis Henry Drake, Baronet.
Ode XIII. On Lyric Poetry.
Ode XIV. To the Honourable Charles Townshend; from the
Country.
Ode XV. To the Evening Star.
Ode XVI. To Caleb Hardinge, M. D.
Ode XVII. On a Sermon against Glory.
Ode XVIII. To the Right Honourable Francis, Earl of Huntingdon.
Book II.—
Ode I. The Remonstrance of Shakspeare.
Ode II. To Sleep.
Ode III. To the Cuckoo.
Ode IV. To the Honourable Charles Townshend; in the Country.
Ode V. On Love of Praise.
Ode VI. To William Hall, Esquire; with the Works of
Chaulieu.
Ode VII. To the Right Reverend Benjamin, Lord Bishop of
Winchester.
Ode VIII.
Ode IX. At Study.
Ode X. To Thomas Edwards, Esq.; on the late Edition of Mr. Pope's Works.
Ode XI. To the Country Gentlemen of England.
Ode XII. On Recovering from a Fit of Sickness; in the
Country.
Ode XIII. To the Author of Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg.
Ode XIV. The Complaint.
Ode XV. On Domestic Manners.
Notes to Book I.
Notes to Book II.
HYMN TO THE NAIADS.
Notes.
INSCRIPTIONS:—
I. For a Grotto.
II. For a Statue of Chaucer at Woodstock.
III.
IV.
V.
VI. For a Column at Runnymede.
VII. The Wood Nymph.
AKENSIDE'S POETICAL WORKS.
THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
A POEM, IN THREE BOOKS.
[Greek: 'Asebous men 'estin 'anthropou tas para tou theou
charitas 'atimazein.]
EPICT. apud Arrian. II. 23.
THE DESIGN.
There are certain powers in human nature which seem to hold a middle place between the organs of bodily sense and the faculties of moral perception: they have been called by a very general name, the Powers of Imagination. Like the external senses, they relate to matter and motion; and, at the same time, give the mind ideas analogous to those of moral approbation and dislike. As they are the inlets of some of the most exquisite pleasures with which we are acquainted, it has naturally happened that men of warm and sensible tempers have sought means to recall the delightful perceptions which they afford, independent of the objects which originally produced them. This gave rise to the imitative or designing arts; some of which, as painting and sculpture, directly copy the external appearances which were admired in nature; others, as music and poetry, bring them back to remembrance by signs universally established and understood.
But these arts, as they grew more correct and deliberate, were, of course, led to extend their imitation beyond the peculiar objects of the imaginative powers; especially poetry, which, making use of language as the instrument by which it imitates, is consequently become an unlimited representative of every species and mode of being. Yet as their intention was only to express the objects of imagination, and as they still abound chiefly in ideas of that class, they, of course, retain their original character; and all the different pleasures which they excite, are termed, in general, Pleasures of Imagination.
The