Black Dwarf,  1 (1817), 463–64.

The Dog Days

W H

Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Meteorology, Natural History, Disease, Putrefaction, Politics, Radicalism


    The poem finds analogies between the languor of nature during the Dog Days and contemporary human affairs. During the Dog Days, the heat 'gathers all / Within its vortex, whether sanient breeze / Or renovating moisture; stopping thus / The vegetative veins, and killing life'. But 'potent Eurus [the east wind]' brings thunderstorms 'To rout the verminating blight, the germ / and spring of dearth portended, or disease'. (464) This inspires a rallying cry for England to arise from its torpor and reclaim its freedom.



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