(“Summer,” 199)
the expression “melts into” has replaced the earlier “attenuates to.”[105] One of the best of the emendations, at least as regards the disappearance of a latinism, is seen in “Summer” (48-9), where the second verse of the couplet,
The meek-eyed morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east
has replaced the
Mildly elucent in the streaky east
of the earlier version. Often Thomson’s latinisms produce no other effect on the reader than that of mere pedantry. Thus in passages such as
See, where the winding vale its lavish stores
Irriguous spreads. See, how the lily drinks
The latent rill.