Dr. Drake after this well accounts for the poetic singularity that the Poetry ofThomsonshould have past through a mind so enthusiastically enamor'd of it, without impairing the originality of its character, when exercis'd on a subject so much leading to imitation. This he explains, and justly, by the vivid impressions on a most sensible and powerful imagination in his earliest youth, anterior to the study of any Poet.
Dr. Drake expresses his astonishment at the VERSIFICATION and DICTION of this Poem. And says most truly, "I am well aware that smooth and flowing lines are of easy purchase, and the property of almost every poetaster of the day: but the versification of Mr.Bloomfieldis of another character; it displays beauties of the most positive kind, and those witcheries of expression which are only to be acquir'd by the united efforts of Genius and Study."
"Thegeneralcharacteristics of his versification are facility and sweetness; that ease which is, in fact, the result of unremitted labour, and one of the most valuable acquisitions of litterature. It displays occasionally likewise a vigour and a brilliancy of polish that might endure comparison with the high-wrought texture of the Muse of DARWIN. From the nature of his subject, however, this splendid mode of decoration could be us'd but with a sparing hand: and it is not one of his least merits that his diction and harmony should so admirably correspond with the scene which he has chosen."
"To excel," Dr. DRAKE continues, "in rural IMAGERY, it is necessary that the Poet should diligently study Nature for himself; and not peruse her as is but too common, 'through the spectacles of Books' [Footnote: The happy illustration of DRYDEN in his admirable character of SHAKESPERE.] He should trace her in all her windings, in her deepest recesses, in all her varied forms. It was thus that LUCRETIUS and VIRGIL, that THOMSON and COWPER were enabled to unfold their scenery with such distinctness and truth: and on this plan, while wandering through his native fields, attentive to 'each rural sight, each rural sound,' has Mr. BLOOMFIELD built his charming Poem."
"It is a Work which proves how inexhaustible the features of the World we inhabit: how from objects which the mass of mankind is daily accustom'd to pass with indifference and neglect. GENIUS can still produce pictures the most fascinating, and of the most interesting tendency. For it is not toimageryalone, though such as here depicted might ensure the meed of Fame, that the Farmer's Boy will owe its value with us and with posterity. AMoralitythe mostpatheticand pure, the feelings of a heart alive to all the tenderest duties of humanity and religion, consecrate its glowing landscapes, and shed an interest over them, a spirit of devotion, that calm and rational delight which the goodness and greatness of the Creator ought ever to inspire."
Dr. DRAKE confirms, by copious and very judiciousExtractsfrom the various parts of the Poem, as they offer themselves to critical selection, in accompanying the Farmer's Boy through the Circle of his year, the Judgment which he has form'd with so much ability, taste, and feeling, and has to agreeably express'd, of the Merits of our ENGLISH GEORGIC. And he speaks in histhirdand last Essay on it thus:
"From the review we have now taken of THE FARMER'S BOY, it will be evident, I think, that owing to its harmony and sweetness of versification, its benevolence of sentiment, and originality of imagery, it is entitled to rank very high in the class of descriptive andpastoralPoetry."
He concludes with an highly animated and feeling anticipation of that public attention to the Poem and to its Author, merited in every view, and which already has manifested itself in such an extent.
I understand there is a Paper on "The Farmer's Boy" in a Work lately publish'd by Dr. ANDERSON; and assuredly from its subject well entitled to attention, as well as from the abilities and public spirit of its Editor;—AGRICULTURAL RECREATIONS. Where indeed with more appropriate Honor could such a Poem be notic'd?
In theCritical RemarksI intended I find myself so much agreeing in sentiment with Dr. Drake that I shall attempt little more than merely to offer some few observations. One of these relates to thecoincidencesof thought and manner in the Farmer's Boy with other writings. These, as would previously be expected from what has been said, are extremely few indeed. And almost all that are particularly of moment in appreciating the poetical excellences of the Work are most trulycoincidences, and cannot be otherwise consider'd.
For the first of these which I shall mention I am indebted to WILLIAM SMITH, Esq. of BURY, who had largely his share of Public Admiration, when he sustain'd for many years with great skill and judgment, and great natural advantages, almost every character of our Drama which had been eminently favor'd by either Muse; and who now enjoys retirement with honor and merited esteem.
He mention'd to me in conversation, and since by Letter, a passage very closely resembling one in the IDYLLIA of AUSONIUS. It is this inSpring.
Like the torn flower the fair assemblage fly.Ah, fallenRose! sad emblem of their doom;Frail as thyself,they perish while they bloom! I.v. 388-40.
The passage to which Mr. Smith referr'd me is this. (It is not in myEdition ofAusonius; but he sent me a Copy.)
"Conquerimur, Natura, brevis quod Gratia florum est;Ostentara oculis illico dona rapis.Quam longa una dies aetas tarn longa rosarum,Quespubescentes juncta senecta pressit."
ID. xiv.
I am favor'd with a Translation made by Mr. SMITH in his very early days.And hope that as a brotherEtonianhe allows me to quote it.
Nature, we grieve that thou giv'st flowers so gay,Then snatchest Gifts thou shew'st so swift away.A Day's a Rose's Life.—How quickly meet,Sweet Flower,thy Blossom and thy Winding sheet!
In theProcessionof SPRING there is a fine series of allegoricalImages.
Advancing SPRING profusely spreads abroadFlowers of kinds, with sweetest fragrance stor'd: Where she treads LOVE gladdens every plain;Delighton tip-toe beats her lucid train; SweetHopewith conscious browbeforeher flies, Anticipating wealth from summer skies.
I. v. 271—6.
Compare now this of LUCRETIUS.
It VER et VENUS et Venerispraenuntius antePrunatusgraditurZephyrus vestigia propter.FLORA quibus mater praespergens, ante viaiCuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet.
DE NAT. RES. L. V. v. 736-9.Ed. Brindley 1749.
There SPRING, and VENUS, and her Harbinger,Near to her moves the winged Zephyrus,For whom maternal FLORA strews the wayWith Flowers of every charming scent and hue.
Or in the very words of BLOOMFIELD,
Flowers of all hues with sweetest fragrance stor'd.
Hopehere occupies the place ofZephyrus. DELIGHT on tip-toe supporting thelucidtrain ofSpring,—the image and attitude so full of life and beauty,—is our Poet's own. And what Poet, whatPainter, would not have been proud of it?
In another passage,
The splendid raiment of the Spring peeps forthHer universal Green—
This of Lucretius will be found to have much similitude:
Camposque per omnesFlorida fulserunt viridami prata colore.
782, 3.
O'er every plain The flowery meadows beam with verdant hue.
And that exceedingly fine verse,
All Nature feels her venorating sway,
calls to mind the ever-memorable exordium of theRomanPoet.
If we admire the imitative force of this line in the epic majesty ofVirgilian numbers,
Quadrupedante putrem sonitu qualit ungula campum:
Shakes the resounding hoof the trembling plain:
shall we not admire the imitative harmony of this; attun'd certainly with not less felicity to the sweetness of the pastoral reed,
The green turf trembling as they bound along.
The pause on the first syllable of the verse has been an admir'd beauty inHomer and Milton.
[Greek: Nux ech d'espchsen enchos.] II.
And over them triumphant Death his dartShook, but delay'd to strike. P.L.
We have this beauty,—coinciding with the best examples, though underiv'd from them,—in a cadence of most pathetic softness.
Joys which the gay companions of her primeSip, as they drift along the stream of time.
III. v. 169, 70.
The beautiful Description of the Swine and Pigs feeding on fallen Acorns reminds me of a most picturesque one, not now at hand, in GILPIN onForest Scenery.
The turn of this thought,
Say not, I'll come and cheer thy gloomy cell.
III. v. 241, &c.
I believe is from Scripture. Prov. iii. 28. And so I think certainly is that,
'Till Folly's wages, wounds and thorns, they reap.
But the most remarkable of all, and where I had no expectation of finding a similitude, is in near the close of theWinter.
Far yet above these wafted clouds are seen(In a remoter sky yet more serene)Others, detach'd in ranges through the air,Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair;Scatter'd immensely wide from east to west,The beauteous semblance of a Flock at rest.
In HERCULES the LION-SLAYER there is this passage:
…….. Tad epaeluthe piona maela,Ech soianaes anionia mei aulia ie saechsie,Ayiar epeiia soes, mala muriai, akkai ep allaisErchomenai phainonth, osei NEPHE HYDATOENTA'Hossat' en thrano eisi elaunomena proleposeAee Noloioio ziae ae Thraekos Boreao.Ton meni thlis arithmos en aeeri ginei ionion,Oui anusis lisa gar ie meia proloioi chulindeiIs anemth, iade i alla chorusselai authis ep alloisToss aiei melopisthe zoon epi zthcholi aeei.Pan dar eneplaesthae pedion, pasaile cheleuthai,Aaeidos erchomenaes.
Idyll. Theocrito adscriptum. Brunckii Analect. I. 360.
…….. On came the comely sheep,From feed returning to their pens and fold.And these theKine, in multitudes, succeed;One on the other rising to the eye;As watery CLOUDS which in the Heavens are seen,Driven by the south or ThracianBoreas,And, numberless, along the sky they glide:Nor cease; so many doth the powerful BlastSpeed foremost, and so many, fleece on fleece,Successive rise, reflecting varied lightSo still the herds of Kine successive drewA far extended line: and fill'd the plain,And all the pathways, with the coming troop.
* * * * *
I may possibly enlarge these Remarks in a future Edition. At present I am happy to be stopt here, by so good a cause as the urgency of the Publishers to complete a Third Edition; they informing me that the second is entirely out of print. But it is pleasant to see these Coincidences with CLASSIC POETS of other days and Nations in a CLASSIC of our own, of the best School:
"The fields his study, Nature was his book."
TROSTON, 22 Aug. 1800.