Book I, line 500–511
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
Quotes from book
The Pleasures of the Imagination
The Pleasures of the Imagination is a long didactic poem by Mark Akenside, first published in 1744.The first book defines the powers of imagination and discusses the various kinds of pleasure to be derived from the perception of beauty; the second distinguishes works of imagination from philosophy; the third describes the pleasure to be found in the study of man, the sources of ridicule, the operations of the mind, in producing works of imagination, and the influence of imagination on morals. The ideas were largely borrowed from Joseph Addison's essays on the imagination in The Spectator and from Lord Shaftesbury. Edward Dowden complains that "his tone is too high-pitched; his ideas are too much in the air; they do not nourish themselves in the common heart, the common life of man." Samuel Johnson praised the blank verse of the poems, but found fault with the long and complicated periods.
Book II, lines 683–693
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
Book III, lines 109–113
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
“Oft the hours
From morn to eve have stolen unmark'd away,
While mute attention hung upon his lips.”
Book II, lines 183–185
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
Book II, lines 100–103
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
“Pall on her temper, like a twice-told tale.”
Book I, line 220
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
“Such and so various are the tastes of men!”
Book III, line 567
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
Book III, lines 173–178
The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
