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.

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

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

She's all my fancy painted her,
She's lovely, she's divine.

She's all my fancy painted her,
She's lovely, she's divine.

Let fancy still in my sense in Lethe steep;
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!

Let fancy still in my sense in Lethe steep;
If it be thus to dream, still let me sleep!

Fancy light from Fancy caught.

Fancy light from Fancy caught.

Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains,
Winning from Reason's hand the reins,
Pity and woe! for read more

Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains,
Winning from Reason's hand the reins,
Pity and woe! for such a mind
Is soft contemplative, and kind.

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.

When last the young Orlando parted from you,
He left a promise to return again
Within a read more

When last the young Orlando parted from you,
He left a promise to return again
Within a hour; and pacing through the forest,
Chewing the food of sweet and bitter fancy,
Lo, what befell!

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.