Observe how spiritual, yet how wandering and playful the fancy is in the first two stanzas, and how far she flies from the matter in hand, never stopping to brood on the character of any one of the images she summons, and yet for a moment truly seeing and believing in them all; while in the last stanza the imagination returns with its deep feeling to the heart of the flower, and "_cleaves fast_" to that. Compare the operation of the imagination in Coleridge, on one of the most trifling objects that could possibly have been submitted to its action.
"The thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not: Only that film which fluttered on the grate Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Methinks its motion in this hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me, who live, Making it a companionable form, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling spirit By its own moods interprets; everywhere, Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of thought."
Lastly, observe the sweet operation of fancy regardant, in the following well-known passage from Scott, where both her beholding and transforming powers are seen in their simplicity.
"The rocky summits--split and rent, Formed turret, dome, or battlement.-- Or seemed fantastically set With cupola or minaret. Nor were these earth-born castles bare, Nor lacked they many a banner fair, For from their shivered brows displayed, Far o'er th' unfathomable glade, All twinkling with the dew-drop sheen, The brier-rose fell, in streamers green,-- And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes Waved in the west wind's summer sighs."
Let the reader refer to this passage, with its pretty tremulous conclusion above the pine tree, "where glistening streamers waved and danced," and then compare with it the following, where the imagination operates on a scene nearly similar.
"Gray rocks did peep from the spare moss, and stemm'd The struggling brook; tall spires of windle strae Threw their thin shadows down the rugged slope, And nought but knarled roots of ancient pines, Branchless and blasted, clench'd with grasping roots Th' unwilling soil. . . . . . . . . . A gradual change was here, Yet ghastly. For, _as fast years flow away, The smooth brow gathers, and the hair grows thin And white; and where irradiate dewy eyes Had shone, gleam stony orbs; so from his steps Bright flowers departed, and the beautiful shade Of the green groves, with all their odorous winds And musical motions._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Where the pass extends Its stony jaws, the abrupt mountain breaks. And seems with its accumulated crags To overhang the world; for wide expand Beneath the wan stars, and descending moon, Islanded seas, blue mountains, mighty streams, _Dim tracts and vast, robed in the lustrous gloom Of leaden-colored even_, and _fiery hills Mingling their flames with twilight_ on the verge Of the remote horizon. The near scene In naked, and severe simplicity Made contrast with the universe. A pine Rock-rooted, stretch'd athwart the vacancy Its swinging boughs, to each _inconstant blast Yielding one only response at each pause_, In most familiar cadence, with the howl, The thunder, and the hiss of _homeless_ streams, Mingling its solemn song."