'Hushed in short suspense The plumy people streak their wings with oil, To throw the lucid moisture trickling off, And wait the approaching sign to strike at once Into the general choir.'
The poet indeed must give us a lively and definite image of the scene or object which he undertakes to describe. But how shall this be done? Simply by telling us how it appeared to him; introducing those circumstances which had the greatest effect on his own imagination. He looks on nature neither as a gardener, a geographer, an astronomer, nor a geologist, but as a man, susceptible of strong impressions, and able to describe clearly to others the objects which affected himself. This he will do in the style which the emotion raised within him naturally dictates. His imagery, his illustrations, his whole language, will take the hue of his own feelings. It is in describing accurately the effect, not the cause, the emotion, not the object which produced it, that the poet's fidelity to nature consists. Let us illustrate our meaning by two or three examples. In Thomson we find the following description of a thunder-storm:
'A boding silence reigns Dread through the dun expanse; save the dull sound That from the mountain, previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth, disturbs the flood, And shakes the forest leaf without a breath. Prone to the lowest vale, the aërial tribes Descend: the tempest-loving raven scarce Dares wing the dubious dusk. In rueful gaze The cattle stand, and on the scowling heavens Cast a deploring eye, by man forsook, Who to the crowded cottage hies him fast, Or seeks the shelter of the downward cave. 'Tis listening fear, and dumb amazement all, When to the startled eye the sudden glance Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud And following slower in explosion vast, The thunder raises his tremendous voice. At first heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven The tempest growls; but as it nearer comes And rolls its awful burthen on the wind, The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more The noise astounds; till over head a sheet Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts And opens wider; shuts, and opens still Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze. Follows the loosened, aggravated roar, Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal Crushed horrible, convulsing heaven and earth.'