tured stone." When her eyes were open, "there was a painful change," and Madeline finds herself disappointed by her reality. She begs Porphyro to bring back the feeling she from her dream, and she is able to feel that same passion again, a passion which causes her to sleep with Porphyro. In this situation, imagination is almost treacherous. Porphyro has obviously tricked Madeline through her belief in the superstition of St. Agnes' Day only to get her into bed. He is not so easily swayed by "fancy" as Madeline, and though he loves her, his love is very selfish and he uses Madeline to feed his desires. Because Madeline wants so desperately to make her fantasy a reality, she easily falls prey to Porphyro's plan, though the reality is not quite as romantic as she had imagined. She is nearly in tears because she wants to continue to believe in the "dream," even though the "sculptured stone" reality is right before her eyes. Although they run off together in the end, it seems as though Madeline never fully resolves the situation in her own mind, as she "hurried at his words, beset with fearslike phantoms" Each of these poets illustrates how imagination can shape reality. It can distort the natural world, or bring uncertain hope to one who regrets the past. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Keats each display the power imagination through their poems, and whether it is an escape, a comfort, or a poison, imagination exudes an incredible force over human values and what is perceived as real. ...
