The words illustrated above are rarely, of course, Thomson’s own coinage. Many of them (e.g. detruded, hyperborean, luculent, relucent, turgent) date from the sixteenth century or earlier, though from the earliest references to them given in the “New English Dictionary” it may be assumed that Thomson was not always acquainted with the sources where they are first found, and that to him their “poetic” use is first due. In some cases Milton was doubtless the immediate source from which Thomson took such words, to use them with a characteristic looseness of meaning.[107]
It would be too much to say that Thomson’s use of such terms arises merely out of a desire to emulate the “grand style”; it reflects rather his general predilection for florid and luxurious diction. Moreover, it has been noted that an analysis of his latinisms seems to point to a definite scheme of formation. Thus there is a distinct preference for certain groups of formations, such as adjectives in “-ive” (affective, amusive, excursive, etc.), or in “-ous” (irriguous, sequacious), or Latin participle forms, such as clamant, turgent, incult, etc. In additions Latin words are frequently used in their original sense, common instances being sordid, generous, error, secure, horrid, dome, while his blank verse line was also characterized by the free use of latinized constructions.[108] Thomson’s frequent use of the sandwiched noun, “flowing rapture bright” (“Spring,” 1088), “gelid caverns woodbine-wrought,” (“Summer,” 461), “joyless rains obscure” (“Winter,” 712), often with the second adjective used predicatively or adverbially,
High seen the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rosy-fingered hours
(“Summer,” 1212)
is also worthy of note.
Yet it can hardly be denied that the language of “The Seasons” is in many respects highly artificial, and that Thomson was to all intents and purposes the creator of a special poetic diction, perhaps even more so than Gray, who had to bear the brunt of Wordsworth’s fulminations. But on the whole his balance is on the right side; at a time when the majority of his contemporaries were either content to draw drafts on the conventional and consecrated words, phrases, and similes, or were sedulously striving to ape the polished plainness of Pope, he was able to show that new powers of expression could well be won from the language. His nature vocabulary alone is sufficient proof of the value of his contributions to the poetic wealth of the language, not a few of his new-formed compounds especially being expressive and beautiful.[109] His latinisms are less successful because they can hardly be said to belong to any diction, and for the most part they must be classed among the “false ornaments” derided by Wordsworth;[110] not only do they possess none of that mysterious power of suggestion which comes to words in virtue of their employment through generations of prose and song, but also not infrequently their meaning is far from clear. They are never the spontaneous reflection of the poet’s thought, but, on the contrary, they appear only too often to have been dragged in merely for effect.
This last remark applies still more forcibly to Somerville’s “Chase,” which appeared in 1735. Its author was evidently following in the wake of Thomson’s blank verse, and with this aim freely allows himself the use of an artificial and inflated diction, as in many passages like
Cull each salubrious plant, with bitter juice
Concoctive stored, and potent to allay