ABSTRACT
The Seasons when it was published in 1730 had sources in diverse genres, but it could be fitted to these only by considerable distortion. The order of composition associatively related Winter with Summer, the extreme seasons, and Spring with Autumn, the tempered ones. By placing them chronologically in The Seasons, Thomson retained the similarities and differences but in an alternating and cyclical order that supported the literary conception; he thus achieved a chronological progress that possessed an associative pattern which was achronological. Spring is the season of love, Summer of power, Autumn of fulfillment, Winter of deformity, but each also contains its own opposite—Spring the frustration of love, Summer the violence of power, Autumn barrenness following fulfillment, Winter the preservation of nature despite deformity.
