William Minto

“ The fresh treatment of a simple theme, the warm poetical colouring of commonplace incidents, the freedom and irregularity of the plan, the boldness of the descriptions, the manly and sincere sentiment, the rough vigour of the verse, took by surprise a generation accustomed to witty satire and burlesque, refined diction, translations from the classics, themes valued in proportion to their remoteness from vulgar life. Thomson at once became famous, and, his naturally easy temper roused to full exertion, vigorously followed up his success with Summer and an Ode to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton. ”

“ The poem is full of character and humour, with here and there passages of elaborately rich description; it is fuller than any other of the personality of the poet, of the good-nature, generosity, and solid wisdom which gained him the affection of so many friends; but still it is in the Seasons, and especially in the first of them, that Thomson is seen at his best and strongest.
Till the advent of Scott and Byron, Thomson was the most widely popular poet in our language ”

“ None of the other Seasons have the same large and careless freedom as Winter; Autumn especially, the last of them, is much more laboured, and his revisions and enlargements in successive editions show an anxious ambition after the finish of the classical school. However this may be, he hesitated long over his next poem, Liberty ”