Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how read more

Tell me where is fancy bred,
Or in the heart, or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.
It is engend'red in the eyes,
With gazing fed, and fancy dies
In the cradle where it lies.

Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.

Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.

While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

While fancy, like the finger of a clock,
Runs the great circuit, and is still at home.

Some things are of that nature as to make
One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.

Some things are of that nature as to make
One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.

The truant Fancy was a wanderer ever.

The truant Fancy was a wanderer ever.

So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

So full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

We figure to ourselves
The thing we like, and then we build it up
As chance will read more

We figure to ourselves
The thing we like, and then we build it up
As chance will have it, on the rock or sand:
For Thought is tired of wandering o'er the world,
And homebound Fancy runs her bark ashore.

The difference is as great between
The optics seeing as the objects seen.
All manners take a read more

The difference is as great between
The optics seeing as the objects seen.
All manners take a tincture from our own;
Or come discolor'd through out passions shown;
Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies,
Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,
One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.

Two meanings have our lightest fantasies,
One of the flesh, and of the spirit one.