y lakes and sandy shores." Coleridge wants his son to have the joy of nature all his life, so that he will have no trouble hearing "that eternal language, which thy God utters." This is an example of how imagination provides comfort in a darker reality. Coleridge's wishes gave him hope for his son, but simultaneously it created a sense of yearning in the poet. In imagining what could be for his son, he also regretted what he missed in growing up. The realization of his own deprivation is what gives Coleridge the determination to pave a greater way for his son. For Coleridge, his imagination would not shape his own life, but the life of his son. In a way he is very idealistic, something that often leads to disappointment. He wishes what every parent wishes: that his child, whom "thrills my heart," have nothing but happiness. He commands, "All seasons shall be sweet to thee." What is in Coleridge's mind is so much better than the real world that he is unsatisfied with what he sees and feels in reality. The elements of an idealistic imagination can be dangerously disappointing, as they potentially are in Coleridge's poem. Coleridge does not focus on this disappointment, but rather on the comfort that these hopes bring him. John Keats, contradictorily, demonstrates how imagination can truly be dangerous. What one imagines can sometimes cause regrettable actions in reality, as in the case of Madeline in "The Eve of St. Agnes." Madeline's "dream" in reality is only a "stratagem" thought up by Porphyro, but it is this dream that is directly responsible for Madeline's consequent actions. Because she believes that on St. Agnes' Eve, "young virgins might have visions of delight / and soft adorings from their loves receive," Madeline falls easily under Porphyro's spell and trusts that he is her true love. In her "dream," Porphyro is perfect, but in reality, the once vivid scene loses its hues, and he becomes "pale as smooth-sculp...
