Fond of this image, he has it again in his "Bard,"
They SWARM, that in thy NOONTIDE BEAM are born,
Gone!
Perhaps the germ of this beautiful image may be found in Shakspeare:—
—— for men, like BUTTERFLIES,
Show not their mealy wings but to THE SUMMER.
Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. s. 7.
And two similar passages in Timon of Athens:—
The swallow follows not summer more willingly than we your lordship.
Timon. Nor more willingly leaves winter; such summer birds are
men.—Act iii.
Again in the same,
—— one cloud of winter showers
These flies are couch'd.—Act ii.
Gray, in his "Progress of Poetry," has