Compared with Homer's they are very bold, and shew an astonishing play of imagination; in place of the naive simplicity and naturalness of antiquity, this modern genius gives us a dazzling display of wit and thought. To quote only short examples[3]:
'Open as day,' 'deaf as the sea,' 'poor as winter,' 'chaste as unsunn'd snow.'
He ranges all Nature. These are characteristic examples:
King Richard doth himself appear As doth the blushing discontented sun From out the fiery portal of the east, When he perceives the envious clouds are bent To dim his glory and to stain the track Of his bright passage to the occident. (_Richard II._)
Since the more fair crystal is the sky, The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. As when the golden sun salutes the morn, And, having gilt the ocean with his beams, Gallops the zodiac in his glistering coach And overlooks the highest peering hills, So Tamora. (_Titus Andronicus._)
As all the world is cheered by the sun, So I by that; it is my day, my life. (_Richard III._)
So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheek down flows; Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright Through the transparent bosom of the deep. As doth thy face through tears of mine give light; Thou shinest on every tear that I do weep. (_Love's Labour's Lost._)
This is modern down to its finest detail, and much richer in individuality than the most famous comparisons of the same kind in antiquity.
Like an unseasonable stormy day Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores As if the world were all dissolved to tears, So high above his limits swells the rage Of Bolingbroke. (_Richard II._)
The current that with gentle murmur glides, Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage; But when his fair course is not hindered, He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones, Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh on his pilgrimage; And so by many winding nooks he strays With willing sport to the wild ocean. Then let me go, and hinder not my course. (_Two Gentlemen of Verona._)
Faster than spring-time showers comes thought on thought. You are the fount that makes small brooks to flow. And what is Edward but a ruthless sea? (_Henry VI._)