"There let the classic Page thy fancy lead / Thro rural Scenes; such as the Mantuan Swain / Paints in the matchless Harmony of Song. / Or catch thyself the Landskip, gliding swift / Athwart Imagination's vivid Eye."
— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
A. Millar
Date
1746
Metaphor
"There let the classic Page thy fancy lead / Thro rural Scenes; such as the Mantuan Swain / Paints in the matchless Harmony of Song. / Or catch thyself the Landskip, gliding swift / Athwart Imagination's vivid Eye."
Metaphor in Context
Thus pass the temperate Hours; but when the Sun
Shades from his Noon-day Throne the scattering clouds,
Even shooting listless Langour through the Deeps;
Then seek the bank where flowering Elders croud,
Where scatter'd wild the Lily of the Vale
Its balmy Essence breathes, where Cowslips hang
The dewy Head, where purple Violets lurk,
With all the lowly Children of the Shade:
Or lie reclin'd beneath yon spreading Ash,
Hung o'er the Steep; whence, borne on liquid Wing,
The sounding Culver shoots; or where the Hawk,
High, in the beetling Cliff, his Airy builds.
There let the classic Page thy fancy lead
Thro rural Scenes; such as the Mantuan Swain
Paints in the matchless Harmony of Song.
Or catch thyself the Landskip, gliding swift
Athwart Imagination's vivid Eye:
Or by the vocal Woods and Waters lull'd,
And lost in lonely Musing, in the Dream,
Confus'd, of careless Solitude, where mix
Ten thousand wandering Images of Things;
Soothe every Gust of Passion into Peace;
All but the Swellings of the soften'd Heart,
That waken, not disturb, the tranquil Mind.
(p. 22, ll. 441-464)
Shades from his Noon-day Throne the scattering clouds,
Even shooting listless Langour through the Deeps;
Then seek the bank where flowering Elders croud,
Where scatter'd wild the Lily of the Vale
Its balmy Essence breathes, where Cowslips hang
The dewy Head, where purple Violets lurk,
With all the lowly Children of the Shade:
Or lie reclin'd beneath yon spreading Ash,
Hung o'er the Steep; whence, borne on liquid Wing,
The sounding Culver shoots; or where the Hawk,
High, in the beetling Cliff, his Airy builds.
There let the classic Page thy fancy lead
Thro rural Scenes; such as the Mantuan Swain
Paints in the matchless Harmony of Song.
Or catch thyself the Landskip, gliding swift
Athwart Imagination's vivid Eye:
Or by the vocal Woods and Waters lull'd,
And lost in lonely Musing, in the Dream,
Confus'd, of careless Solitude, where mix
Ten thousand wandering Images of Things;
Soothe every Gust of Passion into Peace;
All but the Swellings of the soften'd Heart,
That waken, not disturb, the tranquil Mind.
(p. 22, ll. 441-464)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
See The Seasons. By James Thomson. (London: Printed [by Henry Woodfall] for A. Millar, in the Strand, 1746). 234 pp. <Link to ECCO>
"Spring" was first published in 1728. Text revised and expanded between 1728 and 1746. Searching metaphors in The Poetical Works (1830) through Stanford HDIS interface, later checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which reproduces the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.
"Spring" was first published in 1728. Text revised and expanded between 1728 and 1746. Searching metaphors in The Poetical Works (1830) through Stanford HDIS interface, later checked against earlier editions. Also reading James Sambrook's edition of The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), which reproduces the 1746 edition of Thomson's poem.
Date of Entry
06/20/2013
