Where Milton describes how Satan, wounded by Michael--
writhed him to and fro convolved,
Thomson follows with a description of the Spring meadows, where
the sportive lambs
This way and that convolved, in friskful glee
Their frolics play.
The lambs emulating Satan are a kind of epitome and emblem of those descriptive poets of the eighteenth century who took Milton for their model.
But perhaps the best example of all is Gray, whose work is full of Miltonic reminiscence. He frequently borrows; and, like Pope, almost always spoils in the borrowing. Thus what Milton writes of the nightingale--
She all night long her amorous descant sung,--
is echoed by Gray in the Sonnet on the Death of Richard West:--