£799] 
To the Exitor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AVING been a grower of lucerne 
for fome years, and being fo well 
{atisfied with the produce as to be defirous 
of increafing tne quantity of acres planted 
with it, were it not for the great expence 
required in keeping it clean; I fhould be. 
glad, through your very ufeiul mifceliany, 
to be informed, by any.of your agricultural 
correfpondents, the beit mode of manage- 
ment, particularly that of cleaning it. 
I an, Sir, 
Your conttant reader and admirer, 
Woodbridge, Sept. 9, 1799+ Ui, 

PERSONIFICATIONS IN PoETRY. 
(Continued from No. XLVitt.) 
DEATH, 
HICH is feldom mentioned by 
poets and orators without a per- 
fonification, has, however, been the fubjeét 
of few exprefs portraitures. The com- 
mon fkeleton figure of Death, with his dart 
and hour-glafs, is a very vulgar and trivial 
conception. It muft alfo appear to any 
one who reflects on the nature of the ani- 
mal body, grofsly abfurd to reprefent the 
molt powerful of beings under a form de- 
fiitute of every part which contributes to 
motion and energy. But in this inftance, 
as in many others, the ideas of agent and 
patient are incongruoufly blended. 
Milton, whofe genius foared infinitely 
above the pitch of common imaginations, 
has given a very fublime, but at the fame 
time indifttin@, image of this terrific 
power. It is in the well-known allegory 
of Sin and Death. 
The other fhape,  . 
if thape it might be call’d that fhape had none 
Diftinguifhable in member, joint, or limb, 
Or fubftance might be call’d that fhadow 
feem’d, 
For each feem’d either; black it .ftood as 
Night, 
Fierce as ten Furies, terrible as Hell, 

ee mee ee 
- And fhook a dreadful dart; what feem’d his 
head 
The likenefs of a kingly crown had on. 
Par, L- il. 666. 
Here is a ftriking example of the power 
of poetry toexcite grand and impreffive 
images, which painting .cannot follow, 
though they refer to the fenfe which it 
peculiarly addreffes. The gloomy indif- 
tin&tnefs of outline in this fhadowy figure, 
and its gueftionable form and fubftance, 
which sender it totally unfit for the deter- 
ea ftrokes of the pencil, do not pre- 
‘the imagination from. embodying a 
afs of black cloud, through which ap- 
-.ONTHLY Mag. No, L, 
Angue notat. 
pear the obfcure lineaments of a horrid 
phantom, fufficiently refembling the poet’s 
idea, to produce all the effect he intended. 
Though it is poffible Milton might have 
taken a bint from the following paflage of 
Spenfer, yet I think itcan fcarcely be faid 
thatthe former was borrozved from the lat- 
ter, as Mr. Thyer repretents. ‘ 
But after all came Life; and lattly Death, 
Death with mot grimand grifsly vifage feen, 
Yet he is nought but parting of the breath, 
No ought to fee, but like a fhade to ween, 
Unbodied, unfouled, unheard, unfeen. 
F..Q. VII. 7. 
The whcle of fiure is in the fecond of 
thefe lines : it is the metaphyfical account 
of Death alone, to which the reft refer, 
A critic, with more ‘probability, has 
pointed out Homer’s defcription of Her- 
cules in the lower regions (Odyfley xi.) 
‘‘ black as night,’ and ever in act to 
fhoot, as an object of Milton’s imitation. 
Milton afterwards reprefents the in- 
fatiable and all-devouring character of 
- Death, by the image of ravenous hunger. 
a SS Death f 
Grinn’d horribly a ghaftly fmile, to hear 
His, famine fhould be fill’d, and bleft his maw 
‘Deftin’d to that good hour. 
Pats ga ke 
This isa claffical ideas -Thuys Silius 
Ttalicus, 1.4 
Mors graditur, vafto pandens cava guttura ritus 
Ln dl 548: 
Death ftalks, and wide his yawning throat 
expands. - 
Seneca the tragedian joins to this a&tion 
that of his unfolding numerous wings. 
Mors alta avidos oris hiatus 
Pandit, et omnes explicat alas. 
Gidip. AG. 1. , 
Fell Death his greedy jaws expands, 
And all his wings unfolds. 
And Statius paints him as a devouring 
monfter, hovering over the field of battle, 
and, like the chufers of the flain in the 
Gothic mythology, felecting his vittims. 
Stygiifque emifia tenebris 
Mors fruitur celo, bellatoremque volando 
Campum opetit, nigroque viros invitat hiatu, 
Nil vulgare legens; fed que digniffima vita 
Funera, pracipuos annis, animifque, cruento 
Theb. VILL. 376. 
It is under the femblance of the god of 
war that Death appears, in a noble ode in 
Mafon’s Carafacus, beginning with 


Hark! heard-ye not yon foottep dread 
That fhook the earth with thund’ring trea? ? 
Perhaps, however, in this very beld aod 
martial figure, we want fomg of the pecu- 
Any har 
Perfenifications in Poetry. §09 

