Edith Matilda Thomas (1854–1925)

“Every man’s imagination hath its friends.”

HE who must lead his life where life began

(Amid the mountains or still inland plains),

If he desire to visit marts and fanes

In storied cities, pilgrim goals of man,

Will oft behold their visionary plan

Sketched in the summer clouds’ slow-moving trains;

Or, longing for the sea, will hear its strains,

When stormy woods break out with praise to Pan.

So, he who lives unfriended and remote,

Hath liberal Fancy serving his desire:

On every wind kind salutations float,

To him addressed; and oft his heart takes fire

At rumor of some masterful emprise,

Wrought on the earth, and anthemed through the skies!