Imagination

To make a fairer,     A kinder, a more constant world than this;     To make time longer     And love a little stronger,     To give to blossoms     And trees and fruits more beauty than they bear,     Adding to sweetness     The aye-wanted completeness,     To say to sorrow,     "Ease now thy bosom of its snaky burden";     (And sorrow brightened,     No more stung and frightened),     To cry to death,     "Stay a little, O proud Shade, thy stony hand";     (And death removing     Left us amazed loving);--     For this and this,     O inward Spirit, arm thyself with power;     Be it thy duty     To give a body to beauty.     Thine to remake     The world in thy hid likeness, and renew     The fading vision     In spite of time's derision.     Be it thine, O spirit,     The world of sense and thought to exalt with light;     Purge away blindness,     Terror and all unkindness.     Shine, shine     From within, on the confused grey world without     That, growing clearer,     Grows spiritual and dearer.