The _lowing herd_ wind slowly o'er the lea,
The _ploughman_ homeward plods his weary way.
Warton has made an observation on this passage in Comus; and observes
further that it is a _classical_ circumstance, but not a _natural_ one,
in an _English landscape_, for our ploughmen quit their work at noon. I
think, therefore, the imitation is still more evident; and as Warton
observes, both Gray and Milton copied here from books, and not from
life.
There are three great poets who have given us a similar incident.
Dryden introduces the highly finished picture of the _hare_ in his Annus
Mirabilis:--
_Stanza_ 131.
So I have seen some _fearful hare_ maintain
A course, till tired before the dog she lay,
Who stretched behind her, pants upon the plain,
Past power to kill, as she to get away.
132.
With his loll'd tongue he faintly licks his prey;
His warm breath blows her flix up as she lies:
She trembling creeps upon the ground away
And looks back to him with _beseeching eyes_.