Question

Why has the poet compared imagination to a soaring bird in this excerpt from the poem "On Imagination" by Phillis Wheatley? Imagination! who can sing thy force? Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? Soaring through air to find the bright abode, Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God, We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, And leave the rolling universe behind: From star to star the mental optics rove, Measure the skies, and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,

Answer 1

In the poem "On Imagination" by Phyllis Wheatley, imagination was compared to that of a soaring bird probably because the bird can reach the highest of mountains, the clouds and even beyond the sky. Just like the imagination, the bird is limitless and with no boundaries. The bird can see everything up and out there that cannot be seen by common folks much like the imagination wherein everything is possible and anything and everybody exists. The bird just like the imagination flies so high to the vast outer space seeing wonders and beauties as they travel and fly leaving those in time when the imagination needs to go back to reality and the bird to his home.