Gray has
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.
Warton has made an observation on this passage in Comus; and observes further that it is a classical circumstance, but not a natural one, in an English landscape, for our ploughmen quit their work at noon. I think, therefore, the imitation is still more evident; and as Warton observes, both Gray and Milton copied here from books, and not from life.
There are three great poets who have given us a similar incident.
Dryden introduces the highly finished picture of the hare in his Annus Mirabilis:—
Stanza 131.
So I have seen some fearful hare maintain
A course, till tired before the dog she lay,
Who stretched behind her, pants upon the plain,
Past power to kill, as she to get away.
132.
With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey;
His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies:
She trembling creeps upon the ground away
And looks back to him with beseeching eyes.
Thomson paints the stag in a similar situation:—
——Fainting breathless toil
Sick seizes on his heart—he stands at bay:
The big round tears run down his dappled face,
He groans in anguish.
Autumn, v. 451.
Shakspeare exhibits the same object:—