Sentiments like these, as they have no ground in nature, are of little value in any poem, but in pastoral they are particularly liable to censure, because it wants that exaltation above common life, which in tragic or heroic writings often reconciles us to bold flights and daring figures.—Johnson.
[36] Virg. Ecl. viii. 59:
Præceps aërii specula de montis in undas
Deferar.
From yon high cliff I plunge into the main. Dryden.—Wakefield.
This passage in Pope is a strong instance of the abnegation of feeling in his Pastorals. The shepherd proclaims at the beginning of his chant that it is his dying speech, and at the end that he has resolved upon immediate suicide. Having announced the tragedy, Pope treats it with total indifference, and quietly adds, "Thus sung the shepherds," &c.
[37] Ver. 98, 100. There is a little inaccuracy here; the first line makes the time after sunset; the second before.—Warburton.
Pope had at first written:
Thus sung the swains while day yet strove with night,
And heav'n yet languished with departing light.
"Quære," he says to Walsh, "if languish be a proper word?" and Walsh answers, "Not very proper."
[38] Virg. Ecl. ii. 67:
Et sol decedens crescentes duplicat umbras.
The shadows lengthen as the sun grows low. Dryden.—Wakefield.