Sub-creation

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world are filled
with Elves and Gobblins, though we dare to build
Gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sowed the seed of dragons - 'twas our right
(used or misused), that right has not decayed,
we make still by the law in which we're made."

J.R.R. Tolkien "On Fairy Stories", pp. 71-72, in Essays Presented to Charles Williams