The soul of music warbles on her tongue.
Moreover, already in Parnell it is evident that the influence of Milton is responsible for some of his personifications. In the same poem we get the invocation:
Come! country Goddess come, nor thou suffice
But bring thy mountain-sister Exercise,
figures which derive obviously from “L’Allegro.”
In the case of Richard Savage (1696-1743) there is still greater freedom in the use of personified abstractions, which, as here the creative instinct is everywhere subjected to the didactic purpose, become very wearisome. The “Wanderer” contains long catalogues of them, in some instances pursued for over fifty lines.[200]
The device continued to be very popular throughout the eighteenth century, especially by those who continue or represent the “Ethical” school of Pope. First amongst these may be mentioned Edward Young (1681-1765), whose “Night Thoughts” was first published between 1742-1744. Young, like his contemporaries, has recourse to personifications, both for didactic purposes and apparently to add dignity to his style. It is probable, too, that in this respect he owes something to “Paradise Lost”; from Milton no doubt he borrowed his figure of Death, which, though poetically not very impressive, seems to have captured the imagination of Blake and other artists who have tried to depict it. The figure is at first only casually referred to in the Fourth Book (l. 96), where there is a brief and commonplace reference to “Death, that mighty hunter”; but it is not until the fifth book that the figure is developed. Yet, though the characterization is carried to great length, there is no very striking personification: we are given, instead, a long-drawn-out series of abstractions, with an attempt now and then to portray a definite human figure. Thus
Like princes unconfessed in foreign courts
Who travel under cover, Death assumes