These two are among the more famous of their time, but a close search amongst the minor poetry of the mid-eighteenth century will bring to light many a surprising instance of poetry written with an eye on the object, as in John Cunningham’s (1729-1773) “Day,”[255] where the sights and sounds of the countryside are simply and freshly brought before us:
Swiftly from the mountain’s brow,
Shadows, nurs’d by night, retire:
And the peeping sun-beam, now,
Paints with gold the village spire.
Philomel forsakes the thorn,
Plaintive where she prates at night;
And the Lark, to meet the morn,
Soars beyond the shepherd’s sight.
From the low-roof’d cottage ridge,