Imparadised in one another's Arms.
—And in his Hand a Reed
Stood waving tipt with Fire.—
The grassie Clods now calv'd,—
Spangled with Eyes—
In these and innumerable other Instances, the Metaphors are very bold but just; I must however observe that the Metaphors are not
so
thick sown in Milton which always savours too much of Wit; that they never clash with one another,
, as Aristotle observes, turns a Sentence into a kind of an Enigma or Riddle
; and that he seldom has recourse to them where the proper and natural Words will do as well.
Another way of raising the Language, and giving it a Poetical Turn, is to make use of the Idioms of other Tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek Forms of Speech, which the Criticks call Hellenisms, as Horace in his Odes abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the several Dialects which Homer has made use of for this end. Milton, in conformity with the Practice of the Ancient Poets, and with Aristotle's Rule, has infused a great many Latinisms, as well as Græcisms, and sometimes Hebraisms, into the Language of his Poem; as towards the Beginning of it.