Note 51 — SUMMER:
Reading edition
Lucan vi. 473:
de rupe pependit Abscissa fixus torrens; amnisque cucurrit Non qua pronus erat. Streams have run back at murmurs of her tongue, And torrents from the rock suspended hung. Rowe.—Steevens.
"The line And headlong streams," says Ruffhead, "surely presents a new image and a bold one too." Bold indeed! Pope has carried the idea into extravagance when he makes the stream not only "listening," but "hang listening in its headlong fall." An idea of this sort will only bear just touching; the mind then does not perceive its violence; if it be brought before the eyes too minutely, it becomes almost ridiculous.—Bowles.