—— Or from the shore
The plovers when to scatter o’er the heath,
And sing their wild notes to the list’ning waste.
Thomson, Spring, l. 23.
Speaking of a man’s hand cut off in battle:
Te decisa suum, Laride, dextera quærit:
Semianimesque micant digiti; ferrumque retractant.
Æneid. x. 395.
The personification here of a hand is insufferable, especially in a plain narration; not to mention that such a trivial incident is too minutely described.
The same observation is applicable to abstract terms, which ought not to be animated unless they have some natural dignity. Thomson, in this article, is quite licentious. Witness the following instances out of many.
O vale of bliss! O softly swelling hills!
On which the power of cultivation lies,
And joys to see the wonders of his toil.
Summer, l. 1423.
Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst
Produce the mighty bowl:
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat
Of thirty years; and now his honest front
Flames in the light refulgent.
Autumn, l. 516.
Thirdly, it is not sufficient to avoid improper subjects. Some preparation is necessary, in order to rouze the mind. The imagination refuses its aid, till it be warmed at least, if not inflamed. Yet Thomson, without the least ceremony or preparation, introduceth each season as a sensible being:
From brightening fields of æther fair disclos’d,
Child of the sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature’s depth.
He comes attended by the sultry hours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way,
While from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blushful face, and earth and skies
All-smiling, to his hot dominion leaves.
Summer, l. 1.
See Winter comes, to rule the vary’d year,
Sullen and sad with all his rising train,
Vapours, and clouds, and storms.
Winter, l. 1.