[233] In the parallel verses of “The Songs of Experience” the human attributes are attributed respectively to Cruelty, Jealousy, Terror, and Secrecy.
[234] “Poetical Works,” ed. John Sampson (Oxford), 1914, p. 187.
[235] Vide, e.g., ll. 18-26.
[236] See also, e.g., “Midnight,” l. 272 foll, and l. 410 foll.
[237] A similar type of abstraction is found here and there in the stanzas of the “Song to David” (1763), e.g.:
’Twas then his thoughts self-conquest pruned
And heavenly melancholy tuned
To bless and bear the rest.
But on the whole Smart’s famous poem is singularly free from the bane, though the “Hymn to the Supreme Being” (vide “A Song to David,” edited Tutin (1904), Appendix, p. 32), has not escaped the contagion. But better instances are to be found in the Odes (“Works,” 1761-1762), e.g., “Strong Labour ... with his pipe in his mouth,” “Health from his Cottage of thatch,” etc. Vide also article on “Christopher Smart,” “Times Literary Supplement,” April 6, 1922, p. 224.
[238] Cf. “Poems of William Cowper,” ed. J. C. Bailey (1905), Intro., p. xl.