By giving the wind a medium through which it can express itself, Coleridge has made a connection between the mind and the imagination. .
Not only is the still air a metaphor for music sleeping on the strings of an instrument waiting to be expressed, Coleridge's choice of words to explain the wind's boldness also emphasizes how wind is involved with the imagery for the creative mind. He writes, "Boldlier swept, the long sequacious notes" (18) which draws our attention to an irregular grammatical formation: the use of the word "boldlier" rather than the phrase "more boldly". The chosen "boldlier" reinforces the dissimilarity between the "coy" music the harp produces as a result of a "desultory breeze" and the music formed when wind more boldly sweep the strings of the harp. To stroke a stringed instrument more boldly, or in other words more forcefully, means playing louder, thus mirroring the coy excuse of the maid with something more obscure, such as the imagination itself: "a witchery of sound". Here Coleridge again enforces that wind is a physical representation of imagination's role. His atypical word choice describes the kind of wind necessary for the instrument to have its full potential recognized. The sheer fact that these strings are strummed harder makes the quiet, shy notes that have always been there to resonate with a much more interesting ad intense sound, put together as if through witchcraft. This is exactly as the imagination brightens up and expands an otherwise dull thought process that is tired and boring. .
To begin with, he explains that phantasies, or "visions" (OED), are moving from place to place extremely lightly and swiftly, just as a breeze is slight and undetectable. This further adds to the notion that the imagination encourages movement in the mind. Also, the allusion of these phantasies crossing a lazy brain bring to mind the image of a bow crossing strings, creating such wild and diverse songs, mimicking the "fluttering" witnessed of the songs composed on the harp.