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Peter, "The Seasons" isn't in couplets? It's blank verse- Stylistically, it (at least on the surface) is basically picking up from Milton; in terms of the subject of the seasons, treated with only passing classical tropes rather than stylized pastoral plan, is new, - He read all the up to date science and revised the poem as new findings came out. But his up-to-the-minute understanding is one reason why the work has "dated" - I mean, no longer claims so much attention - , perhaps. But quite possibly it would be better in couplets - the blank verse has a dampening effect and one feels sometimes that Thomson wants to lift off from it. It's a very Whig poem, too, where Newton fuses effortlessly with the spiritual notions of Lord Shaftesbury. In terms of sales at the time, Thomson sold and sold, there were Thomson books everywhere like Bibles for a hundred years or so, along with the praise of Johnson, Cowper, Wordsworth, and begrudgingly Coleridge - The Seasons, in Baron Gottfried van Swieten's translation, also form the libretto for Haydn's 'Die Jahreszeiten. Also, Kenneth Koch wrote a homage "The Seasons", in the city, "Pizza parlours open up..." Edmund _________________________________________________________________ Get Hotmail, News, Sport and Entertainment from MSN on your mobile. http://www.msn.txt4content.com/