"Imagination!
Who can sing thy force?
Or who
describe the swiftness of they course?
Soaring
through air to find the bright abode,
Th'
empyreal palace of the thund'ring God,
We on
thy pinions can surpass the wind,
And
leave the rolling universe behind;
From
star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure
the skies, and range the realms above."
- Phillis Wheatley, On Imagination
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Analysis
Like a
child wondering at the night sky, imagination is the “swiftness”
that captures our gaze. The “swift” force is like a submergence,
loving in it's tender care to our minds. Similar Bradstreet's love of
heaven, Wheatley's love of imagination is a “mental optics” that
can grant us the love of wonder and mind.
~ Aaron Kennel
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