"As languid on the banks I lie reclined, / Half-formed ideas melting in my mind; / The maddening cattle hurry to the wood / Or, stung with swarming insects, seek the flood."
— Wilson, John, Scottish Poet (1720-1789)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London and Edinburgh
Publisher
Printed by and for Mundell & Son
Date
1803
Metaphor
"As languid on the banks I lie reclined, / Half-formed ideas melting in my mind; / The maddening cattle hurry to the wood / Or, stung with swarming insects, seek the flood."
Metaphor in Context
When Phoebus flaming bright in cloudless skies,
Pours all his splendours on my labouring eyes,
In these sweet groves let me at ease recline,
While o'er my head the trembling branches twine,
Which wanton breezes shake in sportive play,
While shades and sunshine shift in chequered day;
Or when their heads, with tempests struggling, nod,
And cast the dancing shadows far abroad.
As languid on the banks I lie reclined,
Half-formed ideas melting in my mind;
The maddening cattle hurry to the wood,
Or, stung with swarming insects, seek the flood.
No pearly dews refresh the labouring ground;
Dry are the leaves, and parched the herbs around;
The tender flowers soft languish or expire,
And crackling stalks reproach the scorching fire;
The tuneful birds suppress the cheerful lay,
And to hoarse grashoppers resign the day;
While at each opening pore, the panting earth,
Labouring with heat, breathes steaming vapours forth.
Pours all his splendours on my labouring eyes,
In these sweet groves let me at ease recline,
While o'er my head the trembling branches twine,
Which wanton breezes shake in sportive play,
While shades and sunshine shift in chequered day;
Or when their heads, with tempests struggling, nod,
And cast the dancing shadows far abroad.
As languid on the banks I lie reclined,
Half-formed ideas melting in my mind;
The maddening cattle hurry to the wood,
Or, stung with swarming insects, seek the flood.
No pearly dews refresh the labouring ground;
Dry are the leaves, and parched the herbs around;
The tender flowers soft languish or expire,
And crackling stalks reproach the scorching fire;
The tuneful birds suppress the cheerful lay,
And to hoarse grashoppers resign the day;
While at each opening pore, the panting earth,
Labouring with heat, breathes steaming vapours forth.
Categories
Provenance
Searching in HDIS (Poetry)
Citation
Text from Scotish Descriptive Poems; With Some Illustrations of Scotish Literary Antiquities (London--Edinburgh: Printed by and for Mundell & Son--and for Longman & Rees, 1803).
Date of Entry
05/31/2005
