45. The distant undertone and monotone of the sea is finely brought out in this alliterative line. See Note, 1. 27, supra. 46-49. These are lines of singular beauty, descriptive of the pleasures of day-dreaming. 55. The landskip such. Such was the landscape. 60. unceasing. Unfailing, constant. 61. The palm is the product of a summer climate. In poetry it may grow in the same soil with the pine, as in Milton's Eden 1, Shakespeare's Arden, the forests of the Faery Queene, &c. 62. Was placed. Was seated; placed himself. cruel fate. The 'labour harsh' in the next line. 65. that pass there by. Milton has 'The moon, sweet regent of the sky, Silvered the walls of Cumnor Hall, And many an oak that grew there by.'—Julius Mickle. that passed that way' (Par. Lost, Bk. IV, 1. 177) to express the same idea. 66. chaunced to breathe. Happened to rest-take breath from toil. Contrast this with its older meaning 'to exert' or 'exercise':-' I am not yet well breathed.'-As You Like It, Act I, sc. ii. 70. syren melody. Thus described in Comus :— 'I have oft heard My mother Circe with the Sirens three, ... And chid her barking waves into attention, But they in pleasing slumber lulled the sense, According to Homer the Sirens (Σeipĥves) were sea-nymphs, who had the power of luring to destruction, by the charm of their songs, all who heard them. The island on which they lived was between Aeaea and the rock of Scylla, near the south-west shore of Italy. Homer says nothing about their number. 76. her wintry tomb. The chrysalis (aurelia), or gold-coloured sheath of butterflies, &c. 77. What... bride can equal her array? Cp. Thomson's Paraphrase of the latter part of the sixth chapter of Matthew : 'What regal vestments can with them compare? 1 'Cedar and pine and fir and branching palm, : 82-90. Cp. Thomson's Paraphrase of part of Matthew vi :'See the light tenants of the barren air! To them nor stores nor granaries belong, Nought but the woodland and the pleasing song. He hears And with inspiring bounty fills them all.' 83. careless grove. The grove where they have no cares. Cp. 'listless climate,' l. 17, supra. 84. the flowering thorn. So Burns, in Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon: Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn.' 85, 86. So Chaucer in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales:'Smale fowles maken melodie, ... So priketh hem nature in here corages.'-11. 9, 11. 87, 88. They neither plough, nor sow, &c. Cp. Matthew vi. 26: 'Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns.' fit for flail. Ready for threshing: the reference is to the sheaves. nodding sheaves. Cp. Autumn, ll. 1, 2— drove. drive.' 89, 90. 'Crowned with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, The tense here is present; an archaic-looking form for theirs each harvest, &c. Cp. Pope's Essay on Man- Epist. III, 11. 37, 38. 91, 92. the wretched thrall Of bitter-dropping sweat. The slave of toil. 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' (Gen. iii. 19). 93. cares that eat away the heart. Cp. Milton's L'Allegro'Ever, against eating cares, Lap me in soft Lydian airs.'-11. 135, 136. 95. savage thirst of gain. Cp. Virgil's 'auri sacra fames.' 96. Interest. Self-interest; selfishness. 97. Astræa left the plain. In the golden age this star-lovely divinity lived on earth, and blessed mankind with her presence; but when the golden age was over, she too, with other divinities that loved the simplicity of primitive man, at last reluctantly withdrew, shocked at the crimes and vices which were polluting the early world. She represented Justice. 97-99. Cp. Campbell's Pleasures of Hope— 'Murder bared her arm, and ramp Yoked the red dragons of her iron ca [And] Peace and Mercy, banished from Sprung on the viewless winds to Heav 99. for. Instead of. 100. cumbrous load of life. Here compared t Sisyphus was condemned to roll up hill in the inferna as soon as he had pushed it with great labour to the down again. 109. Thomson's own habit latterly was to rise at 110. To pass the joyless day. Cp. Burns- And day.'-Winter, a Dirge. III. upstart fortune. Fortunate upstart. 113-116. Thomson seems to have cherished an i and contempt for pettifogging lawyers. Cp. Autumn 'Let this through cities work his eager By legal outrage and established guile, Let th Ensnare the wretched in the toils of law Fomenting discord and perplexing right, An iron race!' Also Winter, 1. 384 The toils of law,-what dark insidious Have cumbrous added to perplex the tru And lengthen simple justice into trade— How glorious were the day that saw the 118. No cocks... to rustic labour call. Cp. Gray's 'The cock's shrill clarion No more shall rouse them from their low But see 1. 690, infra,—' Gout here counts the crowing 118-124. Cp. Cowper's Task, Bk. I, 1. 225— Hidden as it is, and far remote From such unpleasing sounds as haunt th In village or in town,-the bay of curs, Incessant clinking hammers, grinding whe And infants clamorous, whether pleased o Oft have I wished the peaceful covert mi 126. Sybarite. A voluptuary. Literally, an inhabi a Greek town in Lucania in southern Italy. The P town induced in the inhabitants an indolent and of life. 133. With milky blood the heart is over flown. Cp. Shakespeare's Macbeth 'It [thy nature] is too full o' the milk of human kindness.' Act I, Sc. v. 136. What, what is virtue? The repetition of 'what' more emphatically challenges any other answer to the question than that given by the sophist. 140. a proud malignant worm! The factitive object; supply 'making him.' 141. But here, instead, soft gales of passion play. supra. See 11. 50-52, 145. The best of men. 149. Even those whom fame, &c. Such as Scipio Africanus the younger, cited by Thomson himself at l. 152, infra. See Winter, ll. 517-520, and Note : Scipio, the gentle chief, [Who], warm in youth to the poetic shade With friendship and Philosophy retired.' The 'friends' and 'philosophers,' to whose society he is represented as 'retiring' from warfare and politics, included Polybius, Laelius (his friendship with whom is the subject of Cicero's De Amicitia), Lucilius, and Terentius. (See Liberty, Part V, ll. 419-421.) 152. the soft Cumaan shore. The ancient town of Cumae stood on the coast of Campania, a few miles to the west of Neapolis (Naples), and not far from Cape Misenum. It was at Cajeta (Gaeta) on the border of Campania, but in Latium, where Scipio found retirement. Its bay is inferior only in beauty to that of Naples. Both Virgil and Horace have celebrated it. 154. The 'exercise' congenial with an indolent life is here made to include the composition of poetry, gardening, and angling. Compare the pastimes of Cowper in his Olney retirement-which chiefly consisted of gardening and 'the poet's toil.' 'How various his employments whom the world Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen.' 157. deck the vernal year. Have a fine display of flowers in Springtime. 158. with your watery gear. In Spring 'thy slender watery stores,' -flies, rod, line, &c. (See Spring, ll. 383–386.) 159. crimson-spotted fry. 'The speckled captives' of Spring, 1. 421. 163. estate. Here it means 'fortune' or 'possessions'; the original meaning is 'condition of life,' and the word is used in this sense in 1. 2, 164. beneath the sun. Under the sun -a recurring phrase in 165. comes blind unrelenting fate. Cp. Milton's Lycidas- 'Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears And slits the thin-spun life.'-ll. 75, 76. 165-169. This passage seems to present various recollections of Linquenda tellus et domus Absumet heres Caecuba dignior Servata centum clavibus et mero Tinget pavimentum superbo.'—Car. II. 14. 'Jam te premet nox fabulaeque Manes Et domus exilis Plutonia.'—Car. I. 4. 172, 173. He ceased. But still, &c. Cp. Milton's Par. Lost, Bk 'The angel ended, and in Adam's ear So charming left his voice that he a while Thought him still speaking, still stood fixed to hear.' 177-180. This in itself is an exquisite simile, charming the imagina- The simile suggests a scene in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The 181. the smooth demon. The wizard, Indolence. His character is 195, 196. the giant crew, Who sought, &c. The Titans, or rather 215. black staff. His rod, or wand of office. Cp. with Morpheus in |