Respites

At the margins of the portrayal of labour in Thomson, Duck and Collier, in the moments of beginning and ending and in the seams that become apparent when different kinds of portrayal come into conflict, much can be determined. Another useful indicator of ideological intention is the way in which the poets describe or offer what I shall call ‘compensations’, meaning positive experiences or explanations which seem to alleviate or counterbalance the hardship of rural labour. We have seen a rather bizarre example in Thomson's attempt to explain to the sheep why it is being grappled to the ground, held down and fleeced by a man with a pair of shears; and we may opportunely take this as a graphic, if somewhat crude, model for the kind of compensatory material I have in mind, though my concern is with those who may feel fleeced of their labour rather than their coats.

We have also seen some of Thomson's more successful compensations: the enjoyment of Nature the poet offers for rising early on a summer morning (and, conversely, the terrible fate that awaits sleepers-in); and the sense of communal enjoyment in the labour of harvest and haytime. Compensations may also arise apparently spontaneously from the subject: thus in ‘Autumn’ Thomson sets his swains a-nutting. Although this is work of a kind, the passage is pure pastoral. I think Thomson recognises that this work is self-evidently pleasurable, and the passage presents no need for social or aesthetic intervention.