Imagination

I AM Imagination—
A marvelous multi-colored drugget that covers the rough-splintered floor of Reality,
A haunted chateau,
The red Pantheon of Lucifer,
A vestibule between Time and Eternity.

I am Imagination—
The North Star of Science, the flambeau of the Lover, the whirling nebulæ of the Poet,
The plasma of gods,
Puck strapped to the back of Rozinante,
A fire-runged ladder to a Fourth Dimension.

I am Imagination—
The seigniory of untrammeled instincts; a fief of unsanctified dreams; Shakespeare of mental faculties,
Golden key to the Bastiles of Logic,
Glistering west-dust of an obliterated sun,
A sublime and beatified liar, demiurge of Myth and Hope.

Benjamin de Casseres.

 

Source: Life, Dec. 21, 1916, Vol. 68, No. 1782, p. 1138

 

Notes

This poem was also published in the following periodicals:

  • The Arizona Republican, 19 Jan. 1917, p. 4
  • The Evening Post, April 28, 1917, p. 16
  • The Quill, Nov. 1918 (Vol. III, No. 6), p. 13.

The version published in The Quill contained a couple minor changes:

  • rough-splintered > rough and splintered
  • seigniory > seignory
  • west-dust > west dust