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Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College


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Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College


1 Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
2 That crown the watery glade,
3 Where grateful Science still adores
4 Her Henry's holy Shade;
5 And ye, that from the stately brow
6 Of Windsor's heights the expanse below
7 Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
8 Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
9 Wanders the hoary Thames along
10 His silver-winding way.

11 Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade,
12 Ah fields beloved in vain,
13 Where once my careless childhood strayed,
14 A stranger yet to pain!
15 I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
16 A momentary bliss bestow,
17 As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
18 My weary soul they seem to soothe,
19 And, redolent of joy and youth,
20 To breathe a second spring.

21 Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen
22 Full many a sprightly race
23 Disporting on thy margent green
24 The paths of pleasure trace,
25 Who foremost now delight to cleave
26 With pliant arm thy glassy wave?
27 The captive linnet which enthrall?
28 What idle progeny succeed
29 To chase the rolling circle's speed,
30 Or urge the flying ball?

31 While some on earnest business bent
32 Their murmuring labours ply
33 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint
34 To sweeten liberty:
35 Some bold adventurers disdain
36 The limits of their little reign,
37 And unknown regions dare descry:
38 Still as they run they look behind,
39 They hear a voice in every wind,
40 And snatch a fearful joy.

41 Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
42 Less pleasing when possessed;
43 The tear forgot as soon as shed,
44 The sunshine of the breast:
45 Theirs buxom health of rosy hue,
46 Wild wit, invention ever-new,
47 And lively cheer of vigour born;
48 The thoughtless day, the easy night,
49 The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
50 That fly the approach of morn.

51 Alas, regardless of their doom,
52 The little victims play!
53 No sense have they of ills to come,
54 Nor care beyond today:
55 Yet see how all around 'em wait
56 The ministers of human fate,
57 And black Misfortune's baleful train!
58 Ah, show them where in ambush stand
59 To seize their prey the murtherous band!
60 Ah, tell them, they are men!

61 These shall the fury Passions tear,
62 The vultures of the mind,
63 Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,
64 And Shame that skulks behind;
65 Or pining Love shall waste their youth,
66 Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,
67 That inly gnaws the secret heart,
68 And Envy wan, and faded Care,
69 Grim-visaged comfortless Despair,
70 And Sorrow's piercing dart.

71 Ambition this shall tempt to rise,
72 Then whirl the wretch from high,
73 To bitter Scorn a sacrifice,
74 And grinning Infamy.
75 The stings of Falsehood those shall try,
76 And hard Unkindness' altered eye,
77 That mocks the tear it forced to flow;
78 And keen Remorse with blood defiled,
79 And moody Madness laughing wild
80 Amid severest woe.

81 Lo, in the vale of years beneath
82 A grisly troop are seen,
83 The painful family of Death,
84 More hideous than their Queen:
85 This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
86 That every labouring sinew strains,
87 Those in the deeper vitals rage:
88 Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,
89 That numbs the soul with icy hand,
90 And slow-consuming Age.

91 To each his sufferings: all are men,
92 Condemned alike to groan;
93 The tender for another's pain,
94 The unfeeling for his own.
95 Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
96 Since sorrow never comes too late,
97 And happiness too swiftly flies.
98 Thought would destroy their paradise.
99 No more; where ignorance is bliss,
100 'Tis folly to be wise.

Gray's annotations

4
[Henry's.] King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the College.
19
And bees their honey redolent of spring.
    Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System. [l. 110 of Dryden's translation of Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv]
79
— [And] Madness laughing in his ireful mood.
    Dryden's Fable of Palamon and Arcite. [ii. 582]

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0 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Metrical notation:  -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+|-+/ -+|-+|-+/
Metrical foot type:  iambic (-+)
Metrical foot number:  tetrameter (4 feet), trimeter (3 feet)
Rhyme scheme:  ababccdeed
Syllable pattern:  8.6.8.6.8.8.8.8.8.6
Stanza:  ten-line stanza
Genre(s):  ode
Theme(s):  age, places, the happy man, contentment, ambition

Notation symbols: | (foot boundary), || (caesura), / (metrical line boundary), + (metrically prominent), - (metrically non-prominent)


1 Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  towers   |   Rhyme sound:  /aʊəz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Ye/ye /j/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Ye/ye/antique /iː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Ye/ye /j/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): distant/spires /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): spires/towers /z/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): antique/towers /t/
Figure:  diacope (morphological): Ye/ye

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2 That crown the watery glade,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  glade   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): That/watery /t/

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3 Where grateful Science still adores    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  adores   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔːz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Science/still /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Science/still /s/

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4 Her Henry's holy Shade;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Shade   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  paroemion (phonological): Her/Henry's/holy /h/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Her/Henry's/holy /h/

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5 And ye, that from the stately brow    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  brow   |   Rhyme sound:  /aʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/that /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): that/stately /t/

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6 Of Windsor's heights the expanse below    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  below   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Windsor's/expanse/below /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Windsor's/expanse /n/
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Of

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7 Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  survey   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Of/of/of /ɒ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Of/grove/of/of/survey /v/
Figure:  diacope (morphological): Of/of/of
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Of

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8 Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  among   |   Rhyme sound:  /ʌŋ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Whose/whose/whose /h/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Whose/whose/whose /uː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Whose/whose/whose /h/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Whose/whose/whose/flowers /z/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): turf/flowers /f/
Figure:  diacope (morphological): Whose/whose/whose

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9 Wanders the hoary Thames along    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  along   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɒŋ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Wanders/along /ɒ/

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10 His silver-winding way.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  way   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): His/silver-winding /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): silver-winding/way /w/

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11 Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  shade   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): happy/hills /h/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Ah/ah /ɑː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): happy/pleasing /p/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): happy/hills /h/
Figure:  diacope (morphological): Ah/ah
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Ah
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): Ah...
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): ah...

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12 Ah fields beloved in vain,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  vain   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): beloved/in /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): fields/beloved /l/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): beloved/vain /v/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): in/vain /n/
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Ah
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): Ah...

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13 Where once my careless childhood strayed,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  strayed   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Where/once /w/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Where/careless /eə/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): my/childhood /aɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Where/once /w/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): careless/childhood /l/

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14 A stranger yet to pain!    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  pain   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): stranger/pain /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): stranger/pain /n/

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15 I feel the gales, that from ye blow,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  blow   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): feel/from /f/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): feel/ye /iː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): feel/gales /l/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): feel/from /f/

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16 A momentary bliss bestow,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  bestow   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): bliss/bestow /b/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): momentary/bestow /əʊ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): bliss/bestow /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): bliss/bestow /b/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): bliss/bestow /s/

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17 As waving fresh their gladsome wing,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wing   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪŋ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): waving/wing /w/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): As/gladsome /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): waving/wing /w/

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18 My weary soul they seem to soothe,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  soothe   |   Rhyme sound:  /uːð/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): soul/seem/soothe /s/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): to/soothe /uː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): My/seem /m/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): soul/seem/soothe /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): they/soothe /ð/

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19 And, redolent of joy and youth,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  youth   |   Rhyme sound:  /uːθ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/and /æ/

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20 To breathe a second spring.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  spring   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪŋ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): second/spring /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): second/spring /s/

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21 Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  seen   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Say/seen /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Say/hast/seen /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Father/thou /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Father/for /f/

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22 Full many a sprightly race    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  race   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪs/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): sprightly/race /s/

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23 Disporting on thy margent green    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  green   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): on/green /n/

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24 The paths of pleasure trace,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  trace   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪs/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): paths/pleasure /p/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): paths/pleasure /p/

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25 Who foremost now delight to cleave    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  cleave   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːv/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Who/to /uː/

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26 With pliant arm thy glassy wave?    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wave   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪv/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): pliant/thy /aɪ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): arm/glassy /ɑː/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): With/wave /w/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): With/thy /ð/
Figure:  pysma (pragmatic)

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27 The captive linnet which enthrall?    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  enthrall   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔːl/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): linnet/which/enthrall /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): linnet/enthrall /l/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): linnet/enthrall /n/
Figure:  pysma (pragmatic)

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28 What idle progeny succeed    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  succeed   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): What/progeny /ɒ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): idle/succeed /d/

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29 To chase the rolling circle's speed,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  speed   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): circle's/speed /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): chase/circle's/speed /s/

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30 Or urge the flying ball?    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  ball   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔːl/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Or/ball /ɔː/

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31 While some on earnest business bent    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  bent   |   Rhyme sound:  /ent/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): business/bent /b/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): on/earnest/bent /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): business/bent /b/

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32 Their murmuring labours ply    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  ply   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6

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33 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  constraint   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪnt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): 'Gainst/graver /g/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): graver/constraint /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): 'Gainst/constraint /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): 'Gainst/graver /g/
Figure:  aphaeresis (morphological): 'Gainst

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34 To sweeten liberty:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  liberty   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6

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35 Some bold adventurers disdain    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  disdain   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Some/disdain /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): adventurers/disdain /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): adventurers/disdain /d/

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36 The limits of their little reign,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  reign   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): limits/little /l/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): limits/little /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): limits/little /l/

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37 And unknown regions dare descry:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  descry   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): dare/descry /d/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): dare/descry /d/

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38 Still as they run they look behind,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  behind   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪnd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): they/they /ð/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Still/behind /ɪ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): they/they /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Still/look /l/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): they/they /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): run/behind /n/
Figure:  diacope (morphological): they/they

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39 They hear a voice in every wind,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wind   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪnd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): in/wind /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): voice/every /v/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): in/wind /n/

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40 And snatch a fearful joy.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  joy   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/snatch /æ/

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41 Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  fed   |   Rhyme sound:  /ed/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): fancy/fed /f/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): is/theirs /z/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): fancy/fed /f/

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42 Less pleasing when possessed;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  possessed   |   Rhyme sound:  /est/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): pleasing/possessed /p/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Less/when/possessed /e/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Less/possessed /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): pleasing/possessed /p/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): pleasing/possessed /z/

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43 The tear forgot as soon as shed,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  shed   |   Rhyme sound:  /ed/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): as/as /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): tear/forgot /t/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): as/as /z/
Figure:  simile (semantic): as...

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44 The sunshine of the breast:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  breast   |   Rhyme sound:  /est/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): sunshine/breast /s/

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45 Theirs buxom health of rosy hue,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  hue   |   Rhyme sound:  /uː/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): health/hue /h/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Theirs/rosy /z/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): health/hue /h/

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46 Wild wit, invention ever-new,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  ever-new   |   Rhyme sound:  /uː/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Wild/wit /w/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): wit/invention /ɪ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): invention/ever-new /e/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Wild/wit /w/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): invention/ever-new /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): invention/ever-new /v/

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47 And lively cheer of vigour born;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  born   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): lively/of/vigour /v/

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48 The thoughtless day, the easy night,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  night   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): thoughtless/night /t/

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49 The spirits pure, the slumbers light,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  light   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): spirits/slumbers /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): spirits/slumbers /s/

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50 That fly the approach of morn.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  morn   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɔːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6

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51 Alas, regardless of their doom,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  doom   |   Rhyme sound:  /uːm/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): regardless/doom /d/

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52 The little victims play!    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  play   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): little/victims /ɪ/

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53 No sense have they of ills to come,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  come   |   Rhyme sound:  /ʌm/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): No/sense /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): have/of /v/

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54 Nor care beyond today:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  today   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Nor/beyond /n/

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55 Yet see how all around 'em wait    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wait   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): how/around /aʊ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): around/'em /ə/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Yet/wait /t/
Figure:  aphaeresis (morphological): 'em

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56 The ministers of human fate,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  fate   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): ministers/human /m/

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57 And black Misfortune's baleful train!    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  train   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): black/baleful /b/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/black /æ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): baleful/train /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): black/baleful /b/

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58 Ah, show them where in ambush stand    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  stand   |   Rhyme sound:  /ænd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): ambush/stand /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): them/ambush /m/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): in/stand /n/
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): Ah...

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59 To seize their prey the murtherous band!    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  band   |   Rhyme sound:  /ænd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8

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60 Ah, tell them, they are men!    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  men   |   Rhyme sound:  /en/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): them/they /ð/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Ah/are /ɑː/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): tell/them/men /e/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): them/they /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): them/men /m/
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): Ah...

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61 These shall the fury Passions tear,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  tear   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪə/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): shall/Passions /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): shall/Passions /ʃ/

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62 The vultures of the mind,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  mind   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪnd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): vultures/of /v/

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63 Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Fear   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪə/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Anger/pallid /æ/

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64 And Shame that skulks behind;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  behind   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪnd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/that /æ/

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65 Or pining Love shall waste their youth,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  youth   |   Rhyme sound:  /uːθ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Love/shall /l/
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Or

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66 Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  tooth   |   Rhyme sound:  /uːθ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): Or

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67 That inly gnaws the secret heart,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  heart   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɑːt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): That/heart /t/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): inly/gnaws /n/

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68 And Envy wan, and faded Care,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Care   |   Rhyme sound:  /eə/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/and/faded /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Envy/wan /n/

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69 Grim-visaged comfortless Despair,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Despair   |   Rhyme sound:  /eə/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Grim-visaged/Despair /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Grim-visaged/comfortless /m/

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70 And Sorrow's piercing dart.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  dart   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɑːt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Sorrow's/piercing /s/

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71 Ambition this shall tempt to rise,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  rise   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Ambition/this /ɪ/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Ambition/shall /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Ambition/tempt /m/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Ambition/shall /ʃ/

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72 Then whirl the wretch from high,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  high   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Then/wretch /e/

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73 To bitter Scorn a sacrifice,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  sacrifice   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪs/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Scorn/sacrifice /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Scorn/sacrifice /s/

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74 And grinning Infamy.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Infamy   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): grinning/Infamy /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): grinning/Infamy /n/

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75 The stings of Falsehood those shall try,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  try   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Falsehood/shall /l/

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76 And hard Unkindness' altered eye,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  eye   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Unkindness'/eye /aɪ/

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77 That mocks the tear it forced to flow;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  flow   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): forced/flow /f/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): That/tear/it /t/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): forced/flow /f/

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78 And keen Remorse with blood defiled,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  defiled   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪld/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Remorse/with /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): blood/defiled /d/
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): And

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79 And moody Madness laughing wild    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wild   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪld/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): moody/Madness /m/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/Madness /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): moody/Madness /d/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): moody/Madness /m/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): laughing/wild /l/
Figure:  anaphora (morphological): And

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80 Amid severest woe.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  woe   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Amid/severest /ɪ/

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81 Lo, in the vale of years beneath    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  beneath   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːθ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): in/beneath /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Lo/vale /l/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): in/beneath /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): vale/of /v/

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82 A grisly troop are seen,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  seen   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6

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83 The painful family of Death,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Death   |   Rhyme sound:  /eθ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8

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84 More hideous than their Queen:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Queen   |   Rhyme sound:  /iːn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): than/their /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): than/Queen /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): than/their /ð/

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85 This racks the joints, this fires the veins,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  veins   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪnz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): This/this /ð/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): This/this /ɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): This/this /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): This/this /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): joints/veins /n/

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86 That every labouring sinew strains,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  strains   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪnz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): sinew/strains /s/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): labouring/strains /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): sinew/strains /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): sinew/strains /s/

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87 Those in the deeper vitals rage:    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  rage   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪdʒ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8

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88 Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  band   |   Rhyme sound:  /ænd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Lo/fill /l/

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89 That numbs the soul with icy hand,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  hand   |   Rhyme sound:  /ænd/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): That/hand /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): That/with /ð/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): numbs/hand /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): soul/icy /s/

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90 And slow-consuming Age.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  Age   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪdʒ/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6

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91 To each his sufferings: all are men,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  men   |   Rhyme sound:  /en/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8

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92 Condemned alike to groan;    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  groan   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  assonance (phonological): Condemned/alike /ə/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Condemned/groan /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Condemned/alike /k/

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93 The tender for another's pain,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  pain   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): tender/another's/pain /n/

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94 The unfeeling for his own.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  own   |   Rhyme sound:  /əʊn/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): unfeeling/own /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): unfeeling/for /f/

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95 Yet ah! why should they know their fate?    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  fate   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): they/their /ð/
Figure:  assonance (phonological): they/fate /eɪ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Yet/fate /t/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): they/their /ð/
Figure:  ecphonesis (pragmatic): ah...

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96 Since sorrow never comes too late,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  late   |   Rhyme sound:  /eɪt/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  alliteration (phonological): Since/sorrow /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Since/never /n/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): Since/sorrow /s/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): too/late /t/

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97 And happiness too swiftly flies.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  flies   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): And/happiness /æ/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): swiftly/flies /f/

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98 Thought would destroy their paradise.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  paradise   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪs/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  consonance (phonological): would/destroy/paradise /d/
Figure:  consonance (phonological): destroy/paradise /s/

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99 No more; where ignorance is bliss,    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  bliss   |   Rhyme sound:  /ɪs/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  8
Figure:  assonance (phonological): ignorance/is/bliss /ɪ/

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100 'Tis folly to be wise.    
Rhyme:  ababccdeed   |   Rhyme word(s):  wise   |   Rhyme sound:  /aɪz/   |   Rhyme (line position):  end
Metre:  -+|-+|-+/   |   Syllables:  6
Figure:  consonance (phonological): 'Tis/wise /z/
Figure:  aphaeresis (morphological): 'Tis

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Gray's annotations

4
[Henry's.] King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the College.
19
And bees their honey redolent of spring.
    Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System. [l. 110 of Dryden's translation of Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv]
79
— [And] Madness laughing in his ireful mood.
    Dryden's Fable of Palamon and Arcite. [ii. 582]

Expanding the poem lines (+) shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 51 textual and 122 explanatory notes/queries.

All notes and queries are shown by default.

0 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College 11 Explanatory, 10 Textual

Title/Paratext] "[This was the first of [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.

"[This was the first of Gray's English productions which appeared in print: it was published anonymously as '' 'An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.' London. Printed for R. Dodsley at Tully's Head in Pall-Mall; and sold by M. Cooper at the Globe in Pater-noster Row, 1747. (Price Sixpence, folio, pp. 8.)'' According to a note by Gray at the close of the original MS. at Pembroke College, it was written ''at Stoke, Aug. 1742.'' It appeared, still anonymously, in vol. ii, p 267, of Dodsley's Collection of Poems in 1748, with no alterations of the text; and finally formed the third of the Six Poems of 1753. In Gray's MS. at Pembroke College, the title of this poem is, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Windsor, and the adjacent Country. The motto from Menander and the notes were added in 1768. - Ed.]"

The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, 16.

Title/Paratext] "Gray wrote this ode in [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Gray wrote this ode in August, 1742, at Stoke, but it was not printed till 1747. It was the first of his English pieces to appear in print, and was published anonymously at sixpence. In 1748 it appeared, once more anonymously, in Dodsley's Collection of Poems; and in 1753 it came third in the ornate Six Poems edition. The motto is from Menander, ap. Stobaeum, Florileg, 98, 7. Fragm. Comic. Graec. ed. A. Meineke IV, 291, fragm. 263; also Comic. Attic. fragm. ed. Th. Kock III, 221, fragm. 811. A similar thought in Philemon. fragm. (Meineke Frag. Com. Gr. 100)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 129/130.

Title/Paratext] "[T]he motto of the poem: [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"[T]he motto of the poem: ''Man, a sufficient occasion for calamity.'' "

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Title/Paratext] "In Gray's MS. at Pembroke [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"In Gray's MS. at Pembroke College, the title is, ''Ode on a Distant Prospect of Windsor, and the adjacent Country.'' [footnote: ''The title is incorrectly given by Mr. Gosse.''] At the foot Gray has written: - ''At Stoke, Aug., 1742.''
Though written in 1742, Gray did not publish this Ode till 1747, and it was the first of his English productions which appeared in print. It was published anonymously, in a folio pamphlet of eight pages, as ''An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. London. Printed for R. Dodsley at Tully's Head in Pall Mall; and sold by M. Cooper at the Globe in Pater-noster Row, 1747. (Price Sixpence.)''
It appeared, still without his name, in Vol. II. of Dodsley's ''Collection of Poems'' in 1748; and comes third in the ''Six Poems'' of 1753."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 184.

Title/Paratext] "The motto from Menander and [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"The motto from Menander and the notes were first printed in 1768. In the Pembroke MS. the motto is written in Gray's hand along the margin commencing opposite the middle of the sixth stanza; and is as it were in explanation of the line - ''Ah, tell them, they are men!'' [l. 60] The passage in Menander from which the motto is taken being in reply to the query, ''Why are you miserable?'' several reasons are given ending with [first word of Greek motto (omitted)], etc., ''Because I am a man, - a sufficient excuse for being miserable.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

Title/Paratext] "''This is the first English [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"''This is the first English production of Mr Gray which appeared in print,'' says Mason. It was printed in 1747 for Dodsley in a folio pamphlet of eight pages and sold for sixpence. Dodsley reprinted it in his Miscellany of 1748. When Walpole was discussing with Gray which poems of his should be included in the Miscellany, Gray replied ''As to my Eton Ode, Mr Dodsley is padrone,'' meaning I think that he has a right to reprint it in the Miscellany if he chooses. (Nov. 1747.) In 1747 and 1748 the Poem was anonymous. The title in the Pembroke MS. is ''Ode. on a distant Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country,'' and, oddly enough, Eton is not mentioned in the title. The motto from Menander is there written along the right hand side of the fifth and sixth stanzas. It was added to the printed poem in 1768, together with Gray's notes. Gray does not, if I remember rightly, punctuate the passage in his marginal note. But it is probably rightly pointed, as we here give it, after Meineke, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, vol. iv. (Menandri Fabulae Incertae CCLXIII.). Gray doubtless found it in Stobaeus, Flor. XCVIII. 7. Perhaps we may render 'I am a man; a sufficient excuse for being unhappy.' Meineke l.c. compares a fragment of Philemon, Menander's rival, which looks like a parody: [Greek line omitted] 'I was in liquor: - a sufficient excuse for doing wrong.' Gray very fitly linked his motto, in the first instance, to the lines which end ''Ah, tell them they are men!'' [line 60]."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 91.

Title/Paratext] "Gray himself has given us [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Gray himself has given us in the Pembroke MS. the date of this Poem. He writes at the end of it ''At Stoke Aug. 1742.''
The personal element in this and the following Ode is of the strongest. West had been dead little more than two months when Gray wrote it. Our poet was still estranged from Walpole, from whom he had parted at Reggio, but he had written, on West's death, a letter to Ashton [footnote: Gray and His Friends, p. 172.], couched in friendly terms, although there is little doubt that Ashton's mischief-making had brought about the famous quarrel and that Ashton was never really forgiven. Of the four members of the Quadruple Alliance, as they were called at Eton (Gray, Walpole, Ashton and West), West was the one friend who was left to Gray in '42; and when he died Gray must have felt very isolated. His life-long friendship with Wharton he contracted at Cambridge before his travels; yet, though he addressed him from Florence in 1740 as ''My dear, dear Wharton, which is a dear more than I give anybody else,'' it is noticeable that there is no extant letter to Wharton between this and one in April 1744. Seeing how religiously Wharton treasured every memento of Gray, I am inclined to think that this friendship had been allowed to lapse during the temporary break up of Gray's association with Cambridge.
The sad circumstances of West's death must also be remembered, as bearing upon the profound melancholy of the Eton Ode; his end is said to have been accelerated by the painful discovery of the sin - some say the crime [footnote: See Gray and His Friends, pp. 15-17.] - of a mother whom he tenderly loved. Both in his own family and in West's, Gray had already, at the age of twenty-six, sad experience of the workings of those fury Passions which he has vividly described.
When Gray writes ''Ah, fields beloved in vain'' he has in mind a friendship broken up, partly by estrangement, and partly by death; and when, in the succeeding Ode, written in the same month (Aug. 1742) he prays

''The gen'rous spark extinct revive
Teach me to love and to forgive,
Exact my own defects to scan,
What others are, to feel, and know myself a Man''
his yearning for the renewal of the broken tie with Walpole reveals itself. The train of reflection in these lines remained with him; it prompts him to write to Chute, the common friend of Walpole and himself, in 1746, after his reconciliation with Walpole, ''Our imperfections may at least excuse, and perhaps recommend us to one another; methinks I can readily pardon sickness, and age, and vexation, for all the depredations they make within and without, when I think they make us better friends, and better men, which I am persuaded is often the case.''
That in July 1742 (the correct date of a letter hitherto assigned to 1745) Gray could write to Chute and Horace Mann who were in Italy an extremely festive letter adapted to their more frivolous temperaments, is only an evidence that he had two moods, the social and the serious, and did not wear his heart upon his sleeve. These 'Italianated' friends knew nothing of Gray's English ties and had met (I believe) none of the companions of his Eton days except Walpole."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 90/91.

Title/Paratext] "Mason says that, about the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Mason says that, about the same time as the publication in 1747, ''at Mr Walpole's request, Mr Gray sat for his picture to Echart, in which, on a paper which he held in his hand, Mr Walpole wrote the title of this Ode, and to intimate his own high and just opinion of it, as a first production, added this line of Lucan by way of motto:

'Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre.' ''
      Pharsalia, lib. X. l. 296.
The full passage, part of a lengthy description of the Nile, runs
''Arcanum Natura caput non prodidit ulli,
(Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre,)
Amovitque sinus, et gentes maluit ortus
Mirari quam nosse tuos.
If this really was the date [footnote: The companion picture of Walpole which hung with it in the Blue Bedchamber at Strawberry Hill is probably later by some years, for it has in the background the famous Gothicized building.] of a portrait by Eckhardt to which Mason refers (a print of which is given in Cunningham's edition of Walpole's Letters, vol. IV. p. 465), it is clear that two years after their reconciliation, Walpole looked upon Gray, still unknown to fame, with the utmost pride and affection. The context of the line from Lucan shows Walpole's drift; in this ode, in which Gray appears for the first time to the world, he is a great and mature, but anonymous poet; just as the Nile, when it first visits the nations, is already a mighty flood, though its sources are unknown."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 91/92.

Title/Paratext] "The first of Gray's poems [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].

"The first of Gray's poems to be printed (1747). It was written at Stoke Poges in 1742 during the depression caused by the death of his friend West, and by his quarrel with Walpole and Ashton."

Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], 159.

Title/Paratext] "[The Pembroke MS. is entitled [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"[The Pembroke MS. is entitled 'Ode. on a distant Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country', and is dated 'at Stoke, Aug. 1742'. The autograph MS. preserved at Eton College has the same title, except that 'distant' is omitted; the envelope which contained it has the interesting note that the MS. belonged to Wordsworth, to whom it was given by the Rev. W. Dixon, Mason's nephew. The Ode was the first of Gray's English productions to appear in print, being published anonymously in a folio pamphlet by Dodsley in 1747. Dodsley also included it in his Collection of Poems, 1748 (first edition), ii. 261.]"

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 30.

Title/Paratext] "This is the first published [...]" W.C. Eppstein, 1959.

"This is the first published English poem of Gray (1747). The poem is redolent of Stoke-Pogis, where it was written, and has enriched the language with three phrases which, unfortunately, constant use has almost hackneyed: ''to snatch a fearful joy'', ''regardless of their doom, the little victims play'', ''where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise''. These expressions should be re-read in their context to eliminate the vulgarity of familiarity. The ethical aspect of the poem is elementary but in no way detracts from its beauty."

Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959, xx.

Title/Paratext] "First published anonymously by Dodsley [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"First published anonymously by Dodsley in 1747, fol. (D)."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 7.

Title/Paratext] "Title: AN ODE . . [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"Title: AN ODE . . . [fol.] D; Ode. on a distant Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country. C[ommonplace] B[ook]; with the omission of distant the same in E[ton College MS]. After the title in M[ason] and in the margin of C[ommonplace] B[ook], 279, appears the motto from Menander (see expl. notes)."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 7.

Title/Paratext] "The poem was written about [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"The poem was written about Aug. 1742; according to Mason (ii. 77), 'This was the first English production of Mr. Gray which appeared in print. It was published in folio by Dodsley in 1747; about the same time, at Mr. Walpole's request, Mr. Gray sat for his picture to Echart, in which, on a paper which he held in his hand, Mr. Walpole wrote the title of this Ode, and to intimate his own high and just opinion of it, as a first production, added this line of Lucan by way of motto.

Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre. [Nor have the people been permitted to see thee, Nile, when thou art small.] Phars[alia]. lib. x. l. 296.'
Parallel to the margin, reading up from l. 55 to l. 41, in C[ommonplace] B[ook] (i. 279) and immediately after the title in M[ason], ii. [9], is the following motto from Menander: Ἄνθρωπος· ἱκανὴ πρόϕασις εἰς τὸ δυστυχεῖν [I am a man, a sufficient excuse for being unhappy]. Liddell-Scott (7th ed.) lists this phrase, s.v. [third Greek word], as being from 'Menand., Incert. 263'. Mitford cites 'Menander. Incert. Frag. ver. 382'. The present editors have been unable to verify the citation from any text available to them of Menander; however, the above citations leave no room for doubt that the quotation is correctly given from a work attributed to him."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 203/204.

Title/Paratext] "G[ray].'s transcript in his Commonplace [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"G[ray].'s transcript in his Commonplace Book (i 278-9, 284) is dated 'at Stoke Aug: 1742', and is entitled 'Ode, on a distant Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country'. Another MS, now at Eton, (once in the possession of G.'s biographer William Mason, whose nephew, W. Dixon, gave it to Wordsworth), has the same title, but omits 'distant' and adds 'in 1743'. The mistake about the date was probably due to faulty memory, but it may indicate the date when G. made this transcript. There is a photograph of the Eton MS in the Illustrated London News cxxxii (20 June 1908) 896.
When G. sent Walpole his Ode on the Spring in Oct. 1746 (Corresp i 250), he referred to another Ode already in Walpole's possession, which is presumably the present poem. It was published anonymously by Dodsley in a folio pamphlet, price 6d, on 30 May 1747 and was the first of G.'s English poems to appear in print. Its publication was no doubt arranged by Walpole, to whom G. described its reception in Cambridge in mid-June 1747 (Corresp i 283): 'I promise you, few take to it here at all, which is a good sign (for I never knew anything liked here, that ever proved to be so any where else,) it is said to be mine, but I strenuously deny it, and so do all that are in the secret, so that nobody knows what to think; a few only of King's College gave me the lie, but I hope to demolish them; for if I don't know, who should?'
A type-facsimile of the original pamphlet was published at Oxford in 1924. Dodsley included the Ode in his Collection ii 261-4, in 1748, but without separating the stanzas. A few minor variants appear in the two MSS, but no changes to the text were made by G. after the first publication of the Ode. The motto from Menander is written beside ll. 41-55 in the Commonplace Book but was not printed with the poem until 1768. It has been translated, 'I am a man; a sufficient excuse for being unhappy.' (See A. Meineke, Quaestionum Menandrearum (Berlin, 1818) p. 267; No 263 in 'Incertarum Fabularum Fragmenta'.) Three footnotes were also added in 1768. Three small variants have been noted in the Foulis edition of 1768, which was supervised by James Beattie, who may have been responsible for them."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 54.

Title/Paratext] "A letter from G[ray]. to [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"A letter from G[ray]. to West on 27 May 1742 (Corresp i 210) throws some light on his attitude to his contemporaries at Eton three months before he wrote this Ode: 'Is it not odd to consider one's Cotemporaries in the grave light of Husband and Father? There is my Lords [Sandwich] and [Halifax], they are Statesmen: Do not you remember them dirty boys playing at cricket? As for me, I am never a bit the older, nor the bigger, nor the wiser than I was then: No, not for having been beyond sea.' The distaste conveyed by G.'s reference to 'dirty boys playing at cricket' is explained at length in a letter from Jacob Bryant, a contemporary of G. at Eton, dated 24 Dec. 1798, first printed in Gentleman's Mag. xxv New Series (1846) 140-3. While still a schoolboy, it appears, G. already took a 'distant view' of the more robust amusements he describes in the poem: 'both Mr. Gray and his friend [Walpole] were looked upon as too delicate, upon which account they had few associates, and never engaged in any exercise, nor partook of any boyish amusement. Hence they seldom were in the fields, at least they took only a distant view of those who pursued their different diversions. Some, therefore, who were severe, treated them as feminine characters, on account of their too great delicacy, and sometimes a too fastidious behaviour. Mr. Walpole long time afterwards used to say that Gray was never a boy. ... Mr. Gray was so averse to all rough exercise, that I am confident he was never on horseback.'
G.'s dislike of boyish games is betrayed by the self-conscious and ponderous diction he uses to describe them, which was intended to be gently humorous. But by Aug. 1742 Eton had acquired a more profound significance for G. than is apparent from the studied immaturity of his letter to West three months earlier. The death of West himself only a few days after the date of that letter had widened the gulf separating G. from his schooldays, which had been opened by his quarrel in Italy with Horace Walpole in the previous year. And, whatever his feelings about Walpole, he would not be able to help reflecting on die fall from power of his former friend's father, Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, early in 1742. His own father had died in November 1741 and G. himself was now financially insecure and uncertain about his future. All these considerations lie behind the poetry which he wrote in this uniquely prolific period in the summer of 1742, and in particular the Ode on Eton."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 54/55.

Title/Paratext] "In this state of mind, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"In this state of mind, G[ray]. could easily idealize his schooldays and the poem is built on a stark contrast between the joys of childhood and the evils which maturity will bring. Eton acquires a prelapsarian innocence, which is enforced by the echoes of Milton's description of Eden and other accounts of man in the Golden Age, before the onset of evil passions, by Pope and Thomson. Another member of the 'Quadruple Alliance', that defensive group of friends who had been too delicate or fastidious for the rougher pleasures of Eton, had described Eton as a state of lost innocence several years earlier, and G. may have remembered the 'Ode to Mary Magdalene' which Richard West, exiled to Oxford, had sent in Aug. 1736 to Walpole (Walpole Correspondence xiii 110-11), which includes the following stanzas:

Lost and enwrapt in thought profound,
Absent I tread Etonian ground;
Then starting from the dear mistake,
    As disenchanted, wake ...

Oh! how I long again with those,
Whom first my boyish heart had chose,
Together through the friendly shade
    To stray, as once I strayed!

Their presence would the scene endear,
Like paradise would all appear,
More sweet around the flowers would blow,
    More soft the waters flow.
In the letter quoted above, Jacob Bryant gives an implausible account of the composition of G.'s Ode, which describes G. crossing the playing-fields of Eton on his way to Windsor to visit Horace Walpole, who had sent him a letter of reconciliation. All the known facts contradict Bryant's story, but there is some basis to his general assertion that 'The poet saw and experimentally felt what he so masterly describes' in that G.'s title is no mere formula. The grounds of West End House at Stoke Poges, where he was staying with his uncle Jonathan Rogers, contained a summer-house overlooking the Thames valley, from which G. could see Eton and Windsor; see Victoria County History of Buckinghamshire, ed. W. Page, iii (1925) 303. Thus G. had a literal 'prospect' before him and he could literally feel the winds blowing from Eton, although part of the point is that the prospect was distant also in time with the winds blowing across the years which separated him from his schooldays. G.'s title also points to a relationship with the genre of the topographical poem, a number of features of which appear in miniature in it: according to R. A. Aubin, Topographical Poetry in XVIII-Century England (New York, 1936) p. 172, 'the opening address, very slight historical retrospection in the reference to the founder of Eton, the genre sketch of the children at play, the presence of abstractions and moralizing' are 'well-worn features' of this literary kind. The crucial innovation in G.'s poem is the development of the nostalgic associations of the landscape described. In effect, as G.'s title indicates, he was combining the topographical poem with the subjective ode to produce a new form, characterized by that interplay of the subjective and objective which distinguishes G.'s poetry."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 55/56.

Title/Paratext] "The epigraph is from Menander [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"The epigraph is from Menander and may be translated: 'I am a man, a sufficient cause for being unhappy.'"

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Title/Paratext] "Composed before 1742. First published [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.

"Composed before 1742. First published as a pamphlet, price 6d., May 30, 1747, by Dodsley."

Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, 81.

Title/Paratext] "In Gray's commonplace book the [...]" D. Fairer/C. Gerrard, 1999.

"In Gray's commonplace book the poem follows Ode on the Spring and precedes the West sonnet. Like the sonnet it is dated 'at Stoke, Aug: 1742', but it would seem to have been completed first. There it is entitled: 'Ode. on a distant Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country'. It was published by Dodsley in 1747 as an anonymous folio pamphlet (the earliest of Gray's English poems to be printed), and then included under Gray's name in Collection of Poems (1748), 2:261-4. In the commonplace book it is accompanied by a rueful Greek quotation from Menander ('I am a man - sufficient reason to be sad'), and this became the poem's motto in the 1768 edition. A contemporary of Gray's at Eton recalled in 1798: 'both Mr. Gray and his friend [Walpole] were looked upon as too delicate, upon which account they had few associates, and never engaged in any exercise, nor partook of any boyish amusement' (Gentleman's Magazine, NS 25 (1846), p. 141). The ode makes an interesting pairing with the West sonnet. In this poem external Nature is supplanted by a tortured projection of the inner world; objectless cycle is now fatalistic progress. A Paradise Lost in miniature, the poem moves between Eden and Hell, exploring the interplay of innocence and ignorance, and with knowledge once more holding the key."

Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999, 325.

Title/Paratext] "On a visit to Gray's [...]" Norman Hammond, 2016.

"On a visit to Gray's "Country Churchyard" at Stoke Poges several decades ago: Looking south-south-west from the churchyard, I calculated that were it not for the trees that had grown up since, Gray would at three miles’ distance and in the clearer air of the mid-eighteenth century have easily been able to see not only a distant prospect of the “antique towers” of Eton College, but also the idle progeny, bold adventurers and little victims in those fields that he had belov’d in vain. Stoke Poges may have inspired not one, but two great poems."

Norman Hammond <ndch@bu.edu> (University of Cambridge). Contributed on Mon Apr 4 08:59:54 2016 GMT.

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1 Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 4 Explanatory

1.1-6 Ye ... towers,] "The view here described is [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"The view here described is full of the quiet beauty of the English landscape."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

1.1 - 2.5 Ye ... glade,] "'May thy lofty head be [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'May thy lofty head be crown'd / With many a tower and terrass round', Comus 934-5; 'All up the silver Thames, or all a down; / Ne Richmond's self, from whose tall Front are ey'd / Vales, Spires, meandring Streams, and Windsor's tow'ry Pride', Pope, Imitation of Spenser 52-4; 'Where Windsor-Domes and pompous Turrets rise', Pope, Windsor Forest 352; 'And ancient towers crown his brow', John Dyer, Grongar Hill 71."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 56.

1.5 antique] "By this word Gray means [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"By this word Gray means simply ''ancient''; we often use it with the connotation ''old-fashioned.'' "

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

1.5 antique] "Ancient; ''antique'' is now applied [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Ancient; ''antique'' is now applied to old-fashioned things, and would not be used of a building. Milton spells it antic, and probably Gray took the epithet from the line in ''Il Penseroso'': - ''With antic pillars massy proof.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

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2 That crown the watery glade, 2 Explanatory

1.1 - 2.5 Ye ... glade,] "'May thy lofty head be [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'May thy lofty head be crown'd / With many a tower and terrass round', Comus 934-5; 'All up the silver Thames, or all a down; / Ne Richmond's self, from whose tall Front are ey'd / Vales, Spires, meandring Streams, and Windsor's tow'ry Pride', Pope, Imitation of Spenser 52-4; 'Where Windsor-Domes and pompous Turrets rise', Pope, Windsor Forest 352; 'And ancient towers crown his brow', John Dyer, Grongar Hill 71."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 56.

2.1-5 That ... glade,] "'haunt the watry Glade', Pope, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'haunt the watry Glade', Pope, Windsor Forest 128."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 56.

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3 Where grateful Science still adores 3 Explanatory

3.3 Science] "Used by Gray for knowledge, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Used by Gray for knowledge, or learning: as in the Elegy (Epitaph 119), ''Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 92.

3.3 Science] "Knowledge in general, as in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Knowledge in general, as in Elegy 119."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 56.

3.3 Science] "all aspects of knowledge." J. Reeves, 1973.

"all aspects of knowledge."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

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4 Her Henry's holy Shade; 6 Explanatory

4.1-4 Her ... Shade;] "Holinshed's words (Chronicles, ed. 1808, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Holinshed's words (Chronicles, ed. 1808, III, 324-5) give the pertinent facts: ''Of his owne naturall inclination he abhorred all the vices as well of the bodie as of the soule. His patience was such that of all the iniuries to him doone (which were innumerable) he never asked vengeance, thinking that for such adversitie as chanced to him, his sinnes should be forgotten and forgiven. ... For these before remembered, and other the like properties of reputed holinesse, which was said to rest in him, it pleased God to worke miracles for him in his life time as men have listed to report. By reason whereof, King Henrie the Seaventh sued to Pope Iulio the Second to have him canonized a saint. But for that the canonizing of a king seemed to be more costlie than for a bishop, the said king left off his sute in that behalf.'' Wakefield calls attention to some of Gray's other references to Henry VI.: ''And spare the meek Usurper's holy head,'' Bard, v. 90; ''the murther'd saint,'' Ode for Music, v. 46."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

4.1-4 Her ... Shade;] "King Henry the Sixth, founder [...]" J. Heath-Stubbs, 1981.

"King Henry the Sixth, founder of Eton College."

Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981, 81.

4.2 Henry's] "Cf. the Bard, l. 90, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Cf. the Bard, l. 90, and his note there."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 92.

4.2 Henry's] "King Henry VI, founder of [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].

"King Henry VI, founder of the College."

Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], 160.

4.2 Henry's] "A bronze statue of Henry [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"A bronze statue of Henry VI had been placed in the centre of School Yard at Eton not long before G[ray]. arrived there in 1725. G. makes other references to the sanctity of this monarch: see Bard 90 n and Ode for Music 46. Shakespeare called Henry 'holy', Richard III V i 4, and Pope referred to him as 'the Martyr-King', Windsor Forest 312."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

4.2 Henry's] "Henry VI, founder of Eton [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Henry VI, founder of Eton College."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

5 And ye, that from the stately brow 1 Explanatory

5.1 - 6.6 And ... below] "The towers of the castle [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"The towers of the castle of Windsor, the present residence of the Queen."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

Add a note or query to this line

6 Of Windsor's heights the expanse below 2 Explanatory

5.1 - 6.6 And ... below] "The towers of the castle [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"The towers of the castle of Windsor, the present residence of the Queen."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

6.2 Windsor's] "Gray attended Eton College, located [...]" Alexander Huber, 2000.

"Gray attended Eton College, located opposite Windsor Castle on the other side of the Thames, from 1725 to 1734."

Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Sep 24 10:32:56 2000 GMT.

Add a note or query to this line

7 Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, 1 Explanatory, 3 Textual

7.1-7 Of ... survey,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : Of Grove and Lawn & Mead survey,"

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 169.

7.1-7 Of ... survey,] "Of Grove & Lawn & [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"Of Grove & Lawn & Mead survey, C[ommonplace] B[ook]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 7.

7.1-7 Of ... survey,] "Of Grove & Lawn & [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Of Grove & Lawn & Mead survey   Commonplace Book."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

7.1 - 10.3 Of ... way.] "Cp. the first version of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. the first version of Pope, Summer 3-4: 'Where gentle Thames his winding Waters leads / Thro' verdant Forests, and thro' flow'ry Meads.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

8 Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among 1 Explanatory

7.1 - 10.3 Of ... way.] "Cp. the first version of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. the first version of Pope, Summer 3-4: 'Where gentle Thames his winding Waters leads / Thro' verdant Forests, and thro' flow'ry Meads.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

9 Wanders the hoary Thames along 4 Explanatory

7.1 - 10.3 Of ... way.] "Cp. the first version of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. the first version of Pope, Summer 3-4: 'Where gentle Thames his winding Waters leads / Thro' verdant Forests, and thro' flow'ry Meads.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

9.1 - 10.3 Wanders ... way.] "tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat / Mincius (where great Mincius wanders in slow windings), Virgil, Georgics iii 14-15; and Pope, Iliad ii 623-4: 'From those rich regions where Cephisus leads / His silver current through the flowery meads'. 'Silver' is a frequent epithet for the Thames in Spenser, Dryden, Pope and Thomson."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

9.3-4 hoary Thames] "Rivers are often spoken of [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Rivers are often spoken of as old; cf. ''Old Father Tiber.'' Cf. also Pope, ''Old father Thames advanced his reverend head,'' Windsor Forest, 330. Cf. also Spenser's famous description of ''full-aged'' Thame (F. Q. iv, 11, 25-6), and Milton's of Camus ''reverend sire,'' Lycidas, 103 ff."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

9.3-4 hoary Thames] "In classical mythology and antique [...]" Alexander Huber, 2000.

"In classical mythology and antique art river-gods were portrayed as old majestic men."

Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Sep 24 10:59:29 2000 GMT.

Add a note or query to this line

10 His silver-winding way. 2 Explanatory

7.1 - 10.3 Of ... way.] "Cp. the first version of [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. the first version of Pope, Summer 3-4: 'Where gentle Thames his winding Waters leads / Thro' verdant Forests, and thro' flow'ry Meads.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

9.1 - 10.3 Wanders ... way.] "tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat / Mincius (where great Mincius wanders in slow windings), Virgil, Georgics iii 14-15; and Pope, Iliad ii 623-4: 'From those rich regions where Cephisus leads / His silver current through the flowery meads'. 'Silver' is a frequent epithet for the Thames in Spenser, Dryden, Pope and Thomson."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line


11 Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade, 2 Explanatory

11.1 - 14.5 Ah ... pain!] "Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, 170: 'Ye happy fields, unknown to noise and strife / ... / Ye shady woods, where once I us'd to rove ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

11.5-6 pleasing shade,] "Cp. Dryden, Aeneid iii 299, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Dryden, Aeneid iii 299, and Flower and the Leaf 314: 'pleasing Shade'; and Pope, Autumn 25: 'pleasing shades'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

12 Ah fields beloved in vain, 5 Explanatory

11.1 - 14.5 Ah ... pain!] "Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, 170: 'Ye happy fields, unknown to noise and strife / ... / Ye shady woods, where once I us'd to rove ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

12.2-5 fields ... vain,] "They recall to him the [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"They recall to him the happy days he had spent with his school friend Richard West, who had just died (see [...] [textual note to 'Ode on the Spring']). These fields cannot now give him any pleasure, because they remind him of his loss."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

12.3-5 beloved ... vain,] "Because they do not still [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Because they do not still afford him the sensations he had as a ''careless'' boy; there is also a reference to the recent death of his school friend, West [ll. 14, 18]."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

12.4-5 in vain,] "Here, says Mr Gosse, ''Gray [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Here, says Mr Gosse, ''Gray permits himself to refer to the constant pressure of regret for his lost friend; the fields are beloved in vain, and in Wordsworth's exquisite phrase he turns to share the rapture - ah! with whom?'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 92.

12.4-5 in vain,] "See Sonnet on West 1, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"See Sonnet on West 1, 14."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

13 Where once my careless childhood strayed, 1 Explanatory

11.1 - 14.5 Ah ... pain!] "Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, 170: 'Ye happy fields, unknown to noise and strife / ... / Ye shady woods, where once I us'd to rove ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

14 A stranger yet to pain! 1 Explanatory

11.1 - 14.5 Ah ... pain!] "Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Gay, Rural Sports ii 168, 170: 'Ye happy fields, unknown to noise and strife / ... / Ye shady woods, where once I us'd to rove ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

15 I feel the gales, that from ye blow, 2 Explanatory

15.1 - 18.7 I ... soothe,] "Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem whose theme is close to G[ray].'s at a number of points), 1-3: 'Welcome cool breeze, to fan my glowing mind, / Cinder'd with feverish cares and constant woe! / Welcome soft bliss, by gracious heav'n design'd ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

15.4 gales,] "The OED defines ''gale'' as [...]" Alexander Huber, 2003.

"The OED defines ''gale'' as ''Poet. and in rhetorical language often used for: A gentle breeze.'' "

Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Fri Feb 7 17:31:23 2003 GMT.

Add a note or query to this line

16 A momentary bliss bestow, 3 Explanatory

15.1 - 18.7 I ... soothe,] "Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem whose theme is close to G[ray].'s at a number of points), 1-3: 'Welcome cool breeze, to fan my glowing mind, / Cinder'd with feverish cares and constant woe! / Welcome soft bliss, by gracious heav'n design'd ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

16.1-4 A ... bestow,] "Cp. Dryden, Juvenal vi 279: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Dryden, Juvenal vi 279: 'The Momentary trembling Bliss'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

16.2-3 momentary bliss] "Forgetting his sorrow for a [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Forgetting his sorrow for a moment in the joy of happy recollections."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

Add a note or query to this line

17 As waving fresh their gladsome wing, 2 Explanatory

15.1 - 18.7 I ... soothe,] "Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem whose theme is close to G[ray].'s at a number of points), 1-3: 'Welcome cool breeze, to fan my glowing mind, / Cinder'd with feverish cares and constant woe! / Welcome soft bliss, by gracious heav'n design'd ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

17.1-6 As ... wing,] "Cp. Bard 124 and n [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Bard 124 and n (p. 198)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

18 My weary soul they seem to soothe, 1 Explanatory

15.1 - 18.7 I ... soothe,] "Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Aaron Hill, Solitude (a poem whose theme is close to G[ray].'s at a number of points), 1-3: 'Welcome cool breeze, to fan my glowing mind, / Cinder'd with feverish cares and constant woe! / Welcome soft bliss, by gracious heav'n design'd ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 57.

Add a note or query to this line

19 And, redolent of joy and youth, 1 Explanatory

19.1-6 And, ... youth,] "Gray's note is from Dryden's [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Gray's note is from Dryden's verses Of the Pythagorean Philosophy (v. 110). From the Fifteenth Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 130.

Add a note or query to this line

20 To breathe a second spring. 1 Explanatory

20.4-5 second spring.] "Second childhood." Alexander Huber, 2000.

"Second childhood."

Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (SUB Göttingen), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Sun Sep 24 20:54:32 2000 GMT.

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21 Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen 3 Explanatory

21.1 - 24.5 Say, ... trace,] "With the apostrophe to Father [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"With the apostrophe to Father Thames and what follows compare the following lines from Green's ''Grotto,'' the poem Gray said he had in mind when writing the ''Ode on the Spring'': -

''Say, Father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flowery banks, if you have seen
The much-sung grotto of the Queen.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

21.2-3 Father Thames,] " ''His supplication to father [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

" ''His supplication to father Thames, to tell him who drives the hoop, or tosses the ball, is useless and puerile. Father Thames has no better means of knowing than himself.'' - Johnson. Frivolous as the objection is, it is not exactly countered by the passage from Johnson's Rasselas (Chapter xxv.) which Dr Bradshaw, after Lord Grenville, has had in mind in his note here:-
''As they were sitting together, the princess cast her eyes upon the river [Nile] that flowed before her. 'Answer' said she 'great father of waters, thou that rollest thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocations of the daughter of thy native King: tell me if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint.' ''
Johnson does not censure Gray for addressing Thames and attributing to him sight and speech, but for putting to him a question to which a better answer could be got by a visit to the playing-fields. Personification once admitted, the question of the princess is less exceptionable, and if father Nile could not answer it, no one else could.
Nevertheless Johnson's is the kind of criticism in which we ought not to indulge, except when we are spiteful. The invocation itself and the question are mere conventions; and the poetic truth in Gray seems to be, but is not, subordinate. As, for Johnson, the great river passes by myriad dwellings of the ever-lamenting, so for Gray it has witnessed generation after generation of the ever-glad. Father Thames, in fact, is supplied by Eton ''with an unfailing succession of young friends,'' to quote the beautiful expression of Hawtrey, the genial Head Master of Eton, who said that on this account he ''could not feel the sadness of growing old.'' (Memoir by F. St J. Thackeray p. 111.)
Matthew Green in the Grotto, a poem which, as we have seen, Gray knew and admired, has a 'Say, Father Thames':

''Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flowery banks,
if you have seen
The much sung Grotto of the queen.
Contemplative, forget awhile
Oxonian towers &c.''
where again the really poetic element is the picture of the gently-flowing river, and the stately buildings by which it passes."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 92/93.

21.2-3 Father Thames,] "'Father Thames' appears in Dryden, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'Father Thames' appears in Dryden, Annus Mirabilis 925, and Pope, Windsor Forest 197 and 330; but G[ray]. probably had in mind Matthew Green, The Grotto 5-7: 'Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace / Gives leave to view what beauties grace / Your flowery banks, if you have seen ...' Cp. also, Pope, Dunciad iii 335: 'Till Thames see Eaton's sons for ever play'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

22 Full many a sprightly race 1 Explanatory, 3 Textual

21.1 - 24.5 Say, ... trace,] "With the apostrophe to Father [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"With the apostrophe to Father Thames and what follows compare the following lines from Green's ''Grotto,'' the poem Gray said he had in mind when writing the ''Ode on the Spring'': -

''Say, Father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flowery banks, if you have seen
The much-sung grotto of the Queen.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

22.4 sprightly] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : smileing. So Eton MS."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 169.

22.4 sprightly] "smileing, C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"smileing, C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College MS]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 7.

22.4 sprightly] "smileing   Commonplace Book, Eton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"smileing   Commonplace Book, Eton."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

23 Disporting on thy margent green 4 Explanatory

21.1 - 24.5 Say, ... trace,] "With the apostrophe to Father [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"With the apostrophe to Father Thames and what follows compare the following lines from Green's ''Grotto,'' the poem Gray said he had in mind when writing the ''Ode on the Spring'': -

''Say, Father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flowery banks, if you have seen
The much-sung grotto of the Queen.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

23.1-5 Disporting ... green] "'By slow Meander's margent green', [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'By slow Meander's margent green', Comus 232."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

23.4-5 margent green] "Probably a reminiscence of Milton, [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Probably a reminiscence of Milton, Comus 232, ''By slow Meander's margent green.'' 'Margent' is the invariable form for 'margin' in Shakespeare and Milton."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 93.

23.4-5 margent green] "banks." J. Reeves, 1973.

"banks."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

24 The paths of pleasure trace, 2 Explanatory

21.1 - 24.5 Say, ... trace,] "With the apostrophe to Father [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"With the apostrophe to Father Thames and what follows compare the following lines from Green's ''Grotto,'' the poem Gray said he had in mind when writing the ''Ode on the Spring'': -

''Say, Father Thames, whose gentle pace
Gives leave to view what beauties grace
Your flowery banks, if you have seen
The much-sung grotto of the Queen.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

24.1-5 The ... trace,] "'In the paths of Pleasure', [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'In the paths of Pleasure', Pope, Essay on Man iii 233."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

25 Who foremost now delight to cleave 2 Explanatory

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

25.1 - 26.6 Who ... wave?] "Stephen Duck, The Midsummer Wish [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Stephen Duck, The Midsummer Wish 17-18 (Gent. Mag. i (1734) 74), of bathing in the Thames at Windsor: 'Let me thy clear, thy yielding wave, / With naked arm once more divide ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

26 With pliant arm thy glassy wave? 3 Explanatory, 3 Textual

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

25.1 - 26.6 Who ... wave?] "Stephen Duck, The Midsummer Wish [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Stephen Duck, The Midsummer Wish 17-18 (Gent. Mag. i (1734) 74), of bathing in the Thames at Windsor: 'Let me thy clear, thy yielding wave, / With naked arm once more divide ...'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

26.1-6 With ... wave?] "Cp. 'Under the glassie, cool, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. 'Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave', Comus 861."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

26.3 arm] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : arms Foulis edition."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 169.

26.3 arm] "arms Foulis edition, 1768." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"arms Foulis edition, 1768."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 7.

26.3 arm] "arms   Foulis." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"arms   Foulis."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

27 The captive linnet which enthrall? 1 Explanatory

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Add a note or query to this line

28 What idle progeny succeed 1 Explanatory

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Add a note or query to this line

29 To chase the rolling circle's speed, 2 Explanatory, 7 Textual

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "''To chase the hoop's elusive [...]" E. Gosse, 1884.

"''To chase the hoop's elusive speed.'' - Pembroke MS."

The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i, 18.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "In the Pembroke MS. this [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"In the Pembroke MS. this line runs: - ''To chase the hoop's elusive speed.'' This curious expression occurs in the fragment of a tragedy, ''Agrippina,'' which Gray had written a few months previously in 1742: -

        ''we could not have beguiled
With more elusive speed the dazzled sight
Of wakeful jealousy.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 185.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "In the Pembroke MS. ''To [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"In the Pembroke MS. ''To chase the hoop's elusive speed.'' Dr Bradshaw notes that Gray uses the phrase in his fragmentary Agrippina:

''We could not have beguiled
With more elusive speed the dazzled sight
Of wakeful jealousy.''
So speaks Otho eloping with Poppaea. This is the second scene of the play, of which we have only twelve lines. Gray had written the first scene as early as the end of March or beginning of April 1742, at which time he sent the last long speech in it to West. In April 1742 he wrote to West that Agrippina is ''laid up to rest till next summer,'' and Mason says ''he never afterwards awakened her.'' But I am inclined to to think that this second scene was an unsuccessful attempt to 'awaken her.' In December 1746 (in a letter hitherto assigned to 1751) Gray sent Walpole ''a scene of a tragedy'' - i.e. the first scene of Agrippina. He did not send the whole of the first scene, because he could not find it; but in January 1747 he did send the 'remainder' in ''an outrageous long speech,'' the same which he had sent to West. If his statements are quite exact he must have written 'elusive speed' in Agrippina after this; and though he wrote to Walpole early in 1747 ''Agrippina can stay very well, she thanks you, and be damned at leisure,'' I believe that these twelve lines were added about that time, under the short-lived stimulus of Walpole's praise. Was then 'elusive speed' first given to the hoop, or to the elopement? To the hoop, I think; and borrowed thence for the elopement. On the supposition that Gray was 'cocker'd up,' to use an expression of his own, to finish Agrippina, possibly for the stage, he would shrink from using exactly the same phrase in such different connections in the Ode, shortly to be published by Dodsley (albeit anonymously), and in a tragedy certain, however short lived, to be exposed to a fire of criticism; and if the play were successful, the authorship of the Ode would not long be a secret. 'The rolling circle's speed' is probably not the reading which Gray preferred, but is due to the poet's fear of being taxed with poverty of resource. I do not know when the Pembroke copy was made by Gray, but I am quite sure that if he had meant the printed reading to take the place of that which he records, he would have noted this in the margin. It was only under a sort of compulsion that Gray here joined the ranks of those who call a 'hat' a 'swart sombrero,' and a courageous editor will some day print 'the hoop's elusive speed' in his text. Supposing the expression occurred first in 1747 in Agrippina, and was afterwards adopted for the ode, the argument for it is still stronger."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 93/94.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : To chase the Hoop's elusive speed,"

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "To chase the Hoop's elusive [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"To chase the Hoop's elusive Speed, C[ommonplace] B[ook]. See Agrippina, l. 194."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 8.

29.1-6 To ... speed,] "To chase the Hoop's elusive [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"To chase the Hoop's elusive Speed   Commonplace Book. (G[ray]. probably made the change to avoid an echo of 'elusive speed' in Agrippina 186.)"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

29.1 - 30.5 To ... ball?] "Ovid, Tristia III xii 19-20: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Ovid, Tristia III xii 19-20: nunc luditur ... / nunc pila, nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus (now there is play with the ball or the swift curling hoop)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

29.3-6 the ... speed,] "Gray originally wrote 'the hoop's [...]" J. Crofts, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].

"Gray originally wrote 'the hoop's elusive speed', but clearly felt that 'hoop' was a word too low for poetry. Compare Cowper's apologies for calling a cucumber a cucumber (Task, iii. 446). Wordsworth must have been thinking of such devices when he began his sonnet: 'Spade! with which Wilkinson hath tilled his lands.'"

Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926], 160.

Add a note or query to this line

30 Or urge the flying ball? 3 Explanatory

25.1 - 30.5 Who ... ball?] "Referring to school sports: swimming, [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Referring to school sports: swimming, bird-snaring, hoop-rolling, and trap-ball. Bentley's Print is my authority for swimming instead of rowing, and for trap-ball instead of cricket."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

29.1 - 30.5 To ... ball?] "Ovid, Tristia III xii 19-20: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Ovid, Tristia III xii 19-20: nunc luditur ... / nunc pila, nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus (now there is play with the ball or the swift curling hoop)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

30.1-5 Or ... ball?] "Waller, Of the Danger his [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Waller, Of the Danger his Majesty Escaped 41-2, 49-50: '... the youths begin to sweep / Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep. / ... / They ply their feet, and still the restless ball, / Tost to and fro, is urged by them all'; and On St James's Park 65: 'No sooner had he touched the flying ball'; and Pope, Dunciad iv 592: 'The Senator at Cricket urge the Ball'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line


31 While some on earnest business bent
32 Their murmuring labours ply 3 Explanatory

32.1 - 33.6 Their ... constraint] "'They are supposed to be [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'They are supposed to be conning by heart and repeating aloud to themselves the tasks, 'saying lessons' &c. which they are to repeat in the 'graver hours,' i.e. when 'up' to their masters in school' (Tovey)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

32.2-3 murmuring labours] "School-boys mouthing over their books." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"School-boys mouthing over their books."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

32.2-3 murmuring labours] "They are supposed to be [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"They are supposed to be conning by heart and repeating aloud to themselves the tasks, 'saying lessons' &c. which they are to repeat in the 'graver hours,' i.e. when 'up' to their masters in school."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 94.

Add a note or query to this line

33 'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint 1 Explanatory

32.1 - 33.6 Their ... constraint] "'They are supposed to be [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'They are supposed to be conning by heart and repeating aloud to themselves the tasks, 'saying lessons' &c. which they are to repeat in the 'graver hours,' i.e. when 'up' to their masters in school' (Tovey)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

34 To sweeten liberty:
35 Some bold adventurers disdain
36 The limits of their little reign, 1 Explanatory

36.1-6 The ... reign,] "They go 'out of bounds.'" [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"They go 'out of bounds.'"

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 94.

Add a note or query to this line

37 And unknown regions dare descry: 2 Explanatory

37.1-5 And ... descry:] "Mitford says, ''This line is [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Mitford says, ''This line is taken from Cowley, Pindarique Ode to Hobbes, 'Till unknown regions it descries.' '' The coincidence of expression, though complete, may be accidental."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 94/95.

37.1-5 And ... descry:] "'Till unknown regions it descries', [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'Till unknown regions it descries', Cowley, To Mr Hobbes 55."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 58.

Add a note or query to this line

38 Still as they run they look behind,
39 They hear a voice in every wind, 2 Explanatory

39.1-4 They ... voice] "The pursuing master." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"The pursuing master."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

39.1-7 They ... wind,] "nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis / suspensum (I am now affrighted by every breeze and startled by every sound), Virgil, Aeneid ii 728-9; and 'Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind', Pope, Essay on Man i 100."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

40 And snatch a fearful joy. 1 Explanatory

40.1-5 And ... joy.] "percussus ... / laetitiaque metuque [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"percussus ... / laetitiaque metuque (thrilled with joy and fear), Aeneid i 513-4; laetoque pavore, Silius Italicus, Punica xvi 431."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line


41 Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, 2 Explanatory, 1 Textual

41.1-7 Gay ... fed,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : The motto from Menander is given in the margin."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

41.1 - 42.4 Gay ... possessed;] "Lucretius iii 1082-3: Sed dum [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Lucretius iii 1082-3: Sed dum abest quod avemus, id exsuperare videtur / cetera; post aliut, cum contigit illud, avemus (But while we have not what we crave, that seems to surpass all else; afterwards when we have attained that, we crave something else). Cp. also Dryden's translation, iii 308-9: 'For still we think an absent blessing best; / Which cloys, and is no blessing when possest'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

41.6 fancy] "imagination, as usual in Gray's [...]" Alexander Huber, 2003.

"imagination, as usual in Gray's poems."

Alexander Huber <huber@thomasgray.org> (University of Oxford), URL: http://www.thomasgray.org/. Contributed on Mon Feb 10 13:48:31 2003 GMT.

Add a note or query to this line

42 Less pleasing when possessed; 2 Explanatory

41.1 - 42.4 Gay ... possessed;] "Lucretius iii 1082-3: Sed dum [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Lucretius iii 1082-3: Sed dum abest quod avemus, id exsuperare videtur / cetera; post aliut, cum contigit illud, avemus (But while we have not what we crave, that seems to surpass all else; afterwards when we have attained that, we crave something else). Cp. also Dryden's translation, iii 308-9: 'For still we think an absent blessing best; / Which cloys, and is no blessing when possest'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

42.1-4 Less ... possessed;] "Mildly pessimistic." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Mildly pessimistic."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Add a note or query to this line

43 The tear forgot as soon as shed,
44 The sunshine of the breast: 1 Explanatory

44.1-5 The ... breast:] "'Eternal sunshine of the spotless [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind', Pope, Eloisa to Abelard 209; 'The soul's calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy', Essay on Man iv 168; 'True joy, the sunshine of the soul', Thomson, To the Memory of Lord Talbot 244; 'It's all a Sunshine of the Soul', John Addison, Works of Anacreon Translated (1735) p. 91."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

45 Theirs buxom health of rosy hue, 2 Explanatory

45.2-3 buxom health] " ''His epithet buxom health [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

" ''His epithet buxom health is not elegant; he seems not to understand the word.'' - Johnson. What sense Johnson would give it, I know not. But the word had already long ago lost its primary sense of 'obedient.' It is derived from A.S. bugan 'to bow.' Instances of the primary sense abound: e.g. Piers Plowman (1377), Passus III. l. 262:

''God hymself hoteth (biddeth)
The[e] be boxome at his biddynge.''
But the idea of prompt, ready, and so brisk and lively, was derived from this; so Pistol in Shakespeare, Henry V, III. 6. 25:
''Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
And of buxom valour,''
though Pistol is not a model of 'elegance.'
The same sense is commonly given to the word in the Prologue to Pericles, l. 23 (whoever wrote this):
      '' ...a female heir,
So buxom blithe and full of face
As heaven had lent her all his grace'':
whence no doubt Milton took his ''So buxom blithe and debonair'' as a description of Euphrosyne or Mirth in L'Allegro, if Masson is right in supposing that L' Allegro as we have it now was written as early as 1632. But Randolph, as Masson tells us, had in 1635 used the very words ''to make one blithe, buxom and deboneer.'' Richardson (Eng. Dict. s.v.) quotes from the Tatler (but with the wrong reference) ''The first I encounter'd were a parcel of buxom bonny dames, that were laughing, singing, dancing and as merry as the day was long.'' One would think that these instances justify 'buxom' as an epithet of Health. Perhaps we associate with it the notion of 'full of face' more closely than Gray did."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95.

45.2 buxom] "Lively, healthy. Cp. 'Celestial rosie [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Lively, healthy. Cp. 'Celestial rosie red, Loves proper hue', Par. Lost viii 619."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

46 Wild wit, invention ever-new,
47 And lively cheer of vigour born; 1 Explanatory

47.1-6 And ... born;] "'In either cheeke depeincten liuely [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'In either cheeke depeincten liuely chere', Spenser, Shepheardes Calender, 'April' 69; and 'as lively vigour led', Par. Lost viii 269."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

48 The thoughtless day, the easy night, 1 Explanatory

48.4-6 the ... night,] "Gray's ill-health made his nights [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Gray's ill-health made his nights anything but ''easy'' in later life."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Add a note or query to this line

49 The spirits pure, the slumbers light, 1 Explanatory

49.1 - 50.6 The ... morn.] "Cp. Adam waking in Eden: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Adam waking in Eden: 'his sleep / Was Aerie light, from pure digestion bred', Par. Lost v 3-4; 'the Schoolboy's simple fare, / The temp'rate sleeps, and spirits light as air!', Pope, Imitations of Horace, Sat. II ii 73-4; and Thomson, Spring 244-5, of man in the Golden Age: 'For their light slumbers gently fumed away, / And up they rose as vigorous as the sun.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

50 That fly the approach of morn. 2 Explanatory

49.1 - 50.6 The ... morn.] "Cp. Adam waking in Eden: [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Adam waking in Eden: 'his sleep / Was Aerie light, from pure digestion bred', Par. Lost v 3-4; 'the Schoolboy's simple fare, / The temp'rate sleeps, and spirits light as air!', Pope, Imitations of Horace, Sat. II ii 73-4; and Thomson, Spring 244-5, of man in the Golden Age: 'For their light slumbers gently fumed away, / And up they rose as vigorous as the sun.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

50.1-6 That ... morn.] "'the sweet approach of Ev'n [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn' and 'th'approach of Morn', Par. Lost iii 42 and ix 191."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line


51 Alas, regardless of their doom, 2 Explanatory

51.1-5 Alas, ... doom,] "Rather heavy moralizing for a [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Rather heavy moralizing for a poet of twenty-five."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

51.1-5 Alas, ... doom,] "Dryden, Astraea Redux 13: 'And [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Dryden, Astraea Redux 13: 'And Heaven that seem'd regardless of our Fate!'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 59.

Add a note or query to this line

52 The little victims play!
53 No sense have they of ills to come,
54 Nor care beyond today:
55 Yet see how all around 'em wait 4 Explanatory, 4 Textual

55.1 - 56.5 Yet ... fate,] "'ministers of fate', The Tempest [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'ministers of fate', The Tempest III iii 61; 'minister of fate', Thomson, Summer 908; 'grim ministers of Fate', Otway, Alcibiades V ii; 'Behold the Fates Infernal Minister; / War, Death, Destruction, in my Hand I bear', Dryden, Aeneid vii 636-7; and 'While round stern Ministers of Fate, / Pain, and Disease, and Sorrow wait', William Broome, Melancholy: An Ode 27-8, in Poems on Several Occasions (1727) p. 45."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

55.3 how] "where   Eton." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"where   Eton."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

55.4 all] "Completely; an adverb." J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Completely; an adverb."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

55.5-6 around 'em] "This abbreviation sounds vulgar to [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"This abbreviation sounds vulgar to the taste of to-day; but it caused no shock then."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

55.6 'em] "This abbreviation of them, or [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"This abbreviation of them, or perhaps a survival of the O.E. eom, is now a vulgarism or only used colloquially, but Gray printed it thus to avoid the unmusical sound of the d and th; and he has it in ''Agrippina'': - ''He perchance may heed 'em.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

55.6 'em] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : them Eton MS., Foulis edition."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

55.6 'em] "them E[ton College MS.], Foulis." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"them E[ton College MS.], Foulis."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 8.

55.6 'em] "them   Eton, Foulis." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"them   Eton, Foulis."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

Add a note or query to this line

56 The ministers of human fate, 1 Explanatory, 1 Textual

55.1 - 56.5 Yet ... fate,] "'ministers of fate', The Tempest [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'ministers of fate', The Tempest III iii 61; 'minister of fate', Thomson, Summer 908; 'grim ministers of Fate', Otway, Alcibiades V ii; 'Behold the Fates Infernal Minister; / War, Death, Destruction, in my Hand I bear', Dryden, Aeneid vii 636-7; and 'While round stern Ministers of Fate, / Pain, and Disease, and Sorrow wait', William Broome, Melancholy: An Ode 27-8, in Poems on Several Occasions (1727) p. 45."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

56.1-5 The ... fate,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : The motto from Menander is given in the margin."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

Add a note or query to this line

57 And black Misfortune's baleful train!
58 Ah, show them where in ambush stand 1 Explanatory

58.1 - 59.7 Ah, ... band!] "Spenser, Faerie Queene IV x [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Spenser, Faerie Queene IV x 20, 6-7: 'For hatred, murther, treason, and despight, / With many moe lay in ambushment there'; and Dryden, Sigismunda and Guiscardo 265-6: 'When these in secret Ambush ready lay, / And rushing on the sudden seiz'd the Prey.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

Add a note or query to this line

59 To seize their prey the murtherous band! 2 Explanatory, 5 Textual

58.1 - 59.7 Ah, ... band!] "Spenser, Faerie Queene IV x [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Spenser, Faerie Queene IV x 20, 6-7: 'For hatred, murther, treason, and despight, / With many moe lay in ambushment there'; and Dryden, Sigismunda and Guiscardo 265-6: 'When these in secret Ambush ready lay, / And rushing on the sudden seiz'd the Prey.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

59.6 murtherous] "Murder was formerly also spelt [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Murder was formerly also spelt murther, d and th being in many words interchangeable, e.g. burden, burthen, thrill, drill. Murtherous is a very expressive form, and suits the rhythm of the line better; he uses it again in the ''Ode for Music,'' 46."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

59.6 murtherous] "In the Pembroke MS. it [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"In the Pembroke MS. it is ''griesly,'' and ''murtherous'' is entered in the margin."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

59.6 murtherous] "In the Pembroke MS. the [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"In the Pembroke MS. the reading is 'griesly,' and 'murtherous' is suggested in the margin."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95.

59.6 murtherous] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : griesly originally stood, but murtherous is given in the margin as a variant."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

59.6 murtherous] "griesly underlined, murtherous underlined in [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"griesly underlined, murtherous underlined in margin, C[ommonplace] B[ook]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 8.

59.6 murtherous] "griesly underlined, with murtherous in [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"griesly underlined, with murtherous in margin, Commonplace Book."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

Add a note or query to this line

60 Ah, tell them, they are men! 1 Explanatory, 3 Textual

60.1-6 Ah, ... men!] "A stronger touch of pessimism. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"A stronger touch of pessimism. Cf. the motto of the poem: ''Man, a sufficient occasion for calamity.'' "

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

60.3 them,] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : 'em So Eton MS., Foulis edition."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

60.3 them,] "'em C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"'em C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College MS.], Foulis."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 8.

60.3 them,] "'em   Commonplace Book, Eton, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'em   Commonplace Book, Eton, Foulis."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

Add a note or query to this line


61 These shall the fury Passions tear, 5 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1-6 These ... tear,] "'The Fury-passions from that blood [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'The Fury-passions from that blood began', Pope, Essay on Man iii 167, after a description, corresponding to those of Thomson (see below) and G[ray]. himself, of man's original innocence."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

61.4-5 fury Passions] "The expression is from Pope's [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"The expression is from Pope's Essay on Man."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95.

Add a note or query to this line

62 The vultures of the mind, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

63 Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear, 4 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

63.1-4 Disdainful ... Fear,] "Cp. exsanguesque Metus in Statius [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. exsanguesque Metus in Statius quoted above; and 'There, the Red Anger dar'd the Pallid Fear', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 563."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 61.

Add a note or query to this line

64 And Shame that skulks behind; 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

65 Or pining Love shall waste their youth, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

66 Or Jealousy with rankling tooth, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

67 That inly gnaws the secret heart, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

68 And Envy wan, and faded Care, 6 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

68.1-6 And ... Care,] "'With praise enough for envy [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'With praise enough for envy to look wan', Milton, Sonnet to Lawes 6; and 'care / Sat on his faded cheek', Par. Lost i 601-2."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 61.

68.2-3 Envy wan,] "Milton, Sonnet to H. Lawes [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Milton, Sonnet to H. Lawes (XIII. 6), ''With praise enough for Envy to look wan.''   Wakefield."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95.

68.5-6 faded Care,] "''care / Sat on his [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"''care / Sat on his faded cheek.'' Milton, Par. Lost, I. 601, 602.   Luke."

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95.

Add a note or query to this line

69 Grim-visaged comfortless Despair, 5 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

69.1-3 Grim-visaged ... Despair,] "Probably, as Todd seems to [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Probably, as Todd seems to suggest, combined (in scarce conscious reminiscence) from Shakespeare, Rich. III. I. 1. 9, ''Grim-visaged war,'' and Comedy of Errors, V. 1. 80 [moody and dull melancholy], ''Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 95/96.

69.1-3 Grim-visaged ... Despair,] "'Grim and comfortless despair', Comedy [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'Grim and comfortless despair', Comedy of Errors V i 80; and 'Grim-visaged war', Richard III I i 9. G[ray]. probably combined memories of these two phrases; but Mitford cites 'grim visadged dispaire', Robert Yarrington, Two Lamentable Tragedies (1601) sig. D 2 r."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 61.

Add a note or query to this line

70 And Sorrow's piercing dart. 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

61.1 - 70.4 These ... dart.] "Such personifications are classical and [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Such personifications are classical and derive largely from Virgil."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line


71 Ambition this shall tempt to rise, 2 Explanatory, 3 Textual

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

71.2 this] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : That So Eton MS."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

71.2 this] "That C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"That C[ommonplace] B[ook], E[ton College MS.], Foulis."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 9.

71.2 this] "that   Commonplace Book, Eton, [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"that   Commonplace Book, Eton, Foulis."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 61.

Add a note or query to this line

72 Then whirl the wretch from high, 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

Add a note or query to this line

73 To bitter Scorn a sacrifice, 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

Add a note or query to this line

74 And grinning Infamy. 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

Add a note or query to this line

75 The stings of Falsehood those shall try, 2 Explanatory, 3 Textual

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

75.5 those] "Variations in Pembroke MS : [...]" A.L. Poole/L. Whibley, 1950 [1st ed. 1919].

"Variations in Pembroke MS : These."

The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919], 170.

75.5 those] "These C[ommonplace] B[ook]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"These C[ommonplace] B[ook]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 9.

75.5 those] "These   Commonplace Book." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"These   Commonplace Book."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

76 And hard Unkindness' altered eye, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

76.1-5 And ... eye,] "'Affected kindness with an alter'd [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'Affected kindness with an alter'd face', Dryden, Hind and the Panther iii 79."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

77 That mocks the tear it forced to flow; 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

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78 And keen Remorse with blood defiled, 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

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79 And moody Madness laughing wild 4 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

79.1-5 And ... wild] "Palamon and Arcite, ii, 1192." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Palamon and Arcite, ii, 1192."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

79.1-5 And ... wild] "Cp. also 'moody mad', I [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. also 'moody mad', I Henry VI IV ii 50."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

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80 Amid severest woe. 2 Explanatory

61.1 - 80.3 These ... woe.] "Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Observe the plentiful abstractions (cf. Introduction, p. xxiv)."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

Add a note or query to this line


81 Lo, in the vale of years beneath 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

81.4-6 vale ... years] "'The vale of years', Othello [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'The vale of years', Othello III iii 266."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

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82 A grisly troop are seen, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

82.1-5 A ... seen,] "'With all the greisly legions [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'With all the greisly legions that troop', Comus 603."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

83 The painful family of Death, 5 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

83.1-5 The ... Death,] "Cf. Progress of Poesy, 42 [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Cf. Progress of Poesy, 42 ff. Family is familia in the literal Latin sense."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

83.1-5 The ... Death,] "Dryden, State of Innocence v. [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Dryden, State of Innocence v. 1, ''With all the numerous family of Death.'' Followed by Pope, Essay on Man ii. 118, ''Hate, fear and grief, the family of pain.''
In this connection 'family' is not used in the sense of 'progeny,' but of attendants, and ministers. The ministers of Fate (l. 56 sq.) vex the soul; if man escapes these, more inevitably the ministers of Death vex the body; and the frame must yield to 'slow-consuming Age,' which appropriately comes last.
But while including Poverty among physical evils, Gray cannot forget that she is also an evil to the mind - she 'numbs the soul with icy hand.' Cf. Elegy [ll. 51/52],

''Chill Penury repressed their noble rage
And froze the genial current of the soul.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 96.

83.1-5 The ... Death,] "Dryden, State of Innocence V [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Dryden, State of Innocence V i: 'Immortal then; now Sickness, Care, and Age, / And War, and Luxury's more direful Rage, / Thy crimes have brought, to shorten mortal Breath, / With all the numerous Family of Death.' Cp. also 'With all the meager Family of Care', Dryden, Lucretius iv 127; Garth, Dispensary (1699) vi 138, 'the faded family of Care'; Pope, Essay on Man ii 118, 'Hate, Fear and Grief, the family of pain'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

84 More hideous than their Queen: 4 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

84.1-5 More ... Queen:] "Diseases worse than death." W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Diseases worse than death."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

84.1-5 More ... Queen:] "Milton, Elegies ii 17, describes [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Milton, Elegies ii 17, describes Death as Magna sepulchrorum regina."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

85 This racks the joints, this fires the veins, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

86 That every labouring sinew strains, 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

87 Those in the deeper vitals rage: 3 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

88 Lo, Poverty, to fill the band, 4 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

88.1 - 89.7 Lo, ... hand,] "Cp. Elegy 51-2 (pp. 126-7)." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Elegy 51-2 (pp. 126-7)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

89 That numbs the soul with icy hand, 4 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

88.1 - 89.7 Lo, ... hand,] "Cp. Elegy 51-2 (pp. 126-7)." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Elegy 51-2 (pp. 126-7)."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

Add a note or query to this line

90 And slow-consuming Age. 5 Explanatory

61.1 - 90.3 These ... Age.] "The original source of most [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"The original source of most passages of this sort in English poetry is Aeneid vi 273-81: vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci / Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae, / pallentesque habitant Morbi tristique Senectus / et Metus et malesuada Fames ac turpis Egestas, / terribiles visu formae, Letumque Labosque; tum consanguineus Leti Sopor et mala mentis / Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum / ferreique Eumenidum thalami et Discordia demens, / vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis (Just before the entrance, even within the very jaws of Hell, Grief and avenging Cares have made their bed; there pale Diseases dwell, and sad Age, and Fear, and ill-counselling Famine, and loathly Want, shapes terrible to view; and Death and Distress; next, Death's own brother Sleep, and the soul's Guilty Joys, and, on the threshold opposite, the death-bearer War, and the Furies' iron cells, and savage Strife, her snaky locks entwined with bloody fillets).
See also the description of the Temple of Mars in Statius, Thebaid vii 47-50, which Chaucer imitated in his Knight's Tale and which G[ray]. would meet again in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (see below): primis salit Impetus amens / e foribus caecumque Nefas Iraeque rubentes / exsanguesque Metus, occultisque ensibus adstant / Insidiae geminumque tenens Discordia ferrum etc. (From the outer gate wild Passion leaps, and blind Mischief and Angers flushing red and pallid Fear, and Treachery lurks with hidden sword, and Discord holding a two-edged blade.)
But G. was indebted to English poets for many of his details. Cp. Spenser, Faerie Queene II vii 22: 'On thother side in one consort there sate, / Cruell Reuenge, and rancorous Despight, / Disloyall Treason, and hart-burning Hate, / But gnawing Gealousie out of their sight / Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bight, / And trembling Feare still to and fro did fly, / And found no place, where safe he shroud him might, / Lamenting Sorrow did in darkness lye, / And Shame his vgly face did hide from liuing eye.' In the previous stanza Spenser had mentioned 'infernall Payne' and 'tumultuous Strife'; and in stanza 25 he described 'selfe-consuming Care'. Cp. also Dryden, Palamon and Arcite ii 480-7 and Pope, Windsor Forest 413-22. G. also appears to have had in mind a passage in Thomson's Spring 278-308, which describes the onset of the passions after man's early innocence in the Golden Age (version of 1730-38): '... the passions all / Have burst their bounds; and Reason, half extinct, / Or impotent, or else approving, sees / The foul disorder. Anger storms at large / Without an equal cause; and fell Revenge / Supports the falling Rage. Close Envy bites / With venomed tooth; while weak unmanly Fear, / Full of frail fancies, loosens every power. / Even Love itself is bitterness of soul, / A pleasing anguish pining at the heart. / Hope sickens with extravagance; and Grief, / Of life impatient, into madness swells, / Or in dead silence wastes the weeping hours. / These, and a thousand mixt emotions more, / From ever-changing views of good and ill, / Formed infinitely various, vex the mind / With endless storm: whence, deeply rankling, grows / The partial thought, a listless unconcern, / Cold, and averting from our neighbour's good; / The dark disgust and hatred, winding wiles, / Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 60/61.

81.1 - 90.3 Lo, ... Age.] "After the mental sufferings caused [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"After the mental sufferings caused by sin and failures, come the bodily ills of old age."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

85.1 - 90.3 This ... Age.] "Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Virgil, Georgics iii 457-9: quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa / cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, / profuit incensos aestus avertere (Nay more, when the pain runs to the very marrow of the bleating victims, there to rage, and when the parching fever preys on the limbs, it is well to turn aside the fiery heat). Cp. also 'grind their joints / With dry convulsions; shorten up their sinews / With aged cramps', Tempest IV i 259-61; 'unthred thy joynts, / And crumble all thy sinews', Comus 614-5; 'joint-racking rheums', Par. Lost xi 485; 'And Rheumatisms I send to rack the joints', Dryden, Palamon and Arcite iii 407; 'The Gout's fierce Rack, the burning Feaver's Rage, / The sad experience of Decay; and Age, / Her self the sorest Ill', Prior, Solomon iii 142-4; and 'the Kinds / Of Maladies that lead to Death's grim Cave, / Wrought by Intemperance, joint racking Gout', John Philips, Cyder (1708) Bk. ii."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 62.

90.1-3 And ... Age.] "'So drooped the slow-consuming maid', [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"'So drooped the slow-consuming maid', Tickell, Colin and Lucy 11."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

90.1 - 92.4 And ... groan;] "Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For when he hath seen youth go by, with its light follies, what troublous affliction is strange to his lot, what suffering is not therein?-envy, factions, strife, battles and slaughters; and, last of all, age claims him for her own,-age, dispraised, infirm, unsociable, unfriended, with whom all woe of woe abides'; and Prior, Solomon iii 240-1, 247-8: 'Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn / And He alone is bless'd, who ne'er was born / ... / I tell Thee, Life is but one common Care; / And Man was born to suffer, and to fear.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

Add a note or query to this line


91 To each his sufferings: all are men, 2 Explanatory

90.1 - 92.4 And ... groan;] "Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For when he hath seen youth go by, with its light follies, what troublous affliction is strange to his lot, what suffering is not therein?-envy, factions, strife, battles and slaughters; and, last of all, age claims him for her own,-age, dispraised, infirm, unsociable, unfriended, with whom all woe of woe abides'; and Prior, Solomon iii 240-1, 247-8: 'Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn / And He alone is bless'd, who ne'er was born / ... / I tell Thee, Life is but one common Care; / And Man was born to suffer, and to fear.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

Add a note or query to this line

92 Condemned alike to groan; 4 Explanatory

90.1 - 92.4 And ... groan;] "Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus 1229-38: 'For when he hath seen youth go by, with its light follies, what troublous affliction is strange to his lot, what suffering is not therein?-envy, factions, strife, battles and slaughters; and, last of all, age claims him for her own,-age, dispraised, infirm, unsociable, unfriended, with whom all woe of woe abides'; and Prior, Solomon iii 240-1, 247-8: 'Who breathes, must suffer; and who thinks, must mourn / And He alone is bless'd, who ne'er was born / ... / I tell Thee, Life is but one common Care; / And Man was born to suffer, and to fear.'"

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

92.1-2 Condemned alike] "alike goes with condemned, ''all [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"alike goes with condemned, ''all equally condemned.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

92.2 alike] " ''Alike'' goes with ''condemned,'' [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

" ''Alike'' goes with ''condemned,'' not with ''to groan.'' "

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

Add a note or query to this line

93 The tender for another's pain, 1 Explanatory

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

Add a note or query to this line

94 The unfeeling for his own. 1 Explanatory

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

Add a note or query to this line

95 Yet ah! why should they know their fate? 5 Explanatory, 2 Textual

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

95.1-8 Yet ... fate?] "Wakefield gives the following illustrative [...]" W. Lyon Phelps, 1894.

"Wakefield gives the following illustrative passages. - Milton's Comus, 359-363:

''Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?''
and from Terence, Hecyra, iii, 1, 6: ''Nam nos omnes, quibus alicunde aliquis objectus labos, / Omne quod interea tempus, prius quam id rescitumst, lucrost.'' The sentiment is common enough, however, and had found perhaps its most familiar expression only a few years before Gray's lines were written, in Pope's Essay on Man, i, 77 ff.: ''Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate,'' etc."

Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894, 131.

95.1 - 97.5 Yet ... flies.] "Lines 96 and 97 should [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Lines 96 and 97 should be taken with 95: - ''Since sorrow never comes too late, and happiness too swiftly dies, why should they know their fate?'' The punctuation here is correct, as would also be a comma after fate and a query after flies; but some editors have a comma after flies."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

95.1-8 Yet ... fate?] "Wakefield compares Milton, Comus 359 [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Wakefield compares Milton, Comus 359 sq.

''Peace, brother: be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils,
For, grant they be so; whilst they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 96.

95.1-8 Yet ... fate?] "Cp. Comus 362: 'What need [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Cp. Comus 362: 'What need a man forestall his date of grief'."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

95.8 fate?] "fate, C[ommonplace] B[ook]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"fate, C[ommonplace] B[ook]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 9.

95.8 fate?] "fate,   Commonplace Book." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"fate,   Commonplace Book."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

Add a note or query to this line

96 Since sorrow never comes too late, 2 Explanatory

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

95.1 - 97.5 Yet ... flies.] "Lines 96 and 97 should [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Lines 96 and 97 should be taken with 95: - ''Since sorrow never comes too late, and happiness too swiftly dies, why should they know their fate?'' The punctuation here is correct, as would also be a comma after fate and a query after flies; but some editors have a comma after flies."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

Add a note or query to this line

97 And happiness too swiftly flies. 2 Explanatory, 2 Textual

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

95.1 - 97.5 Yet ... flies.] "Lines 96 and 97 should [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Lines 96 and 97 should be taken with 95: - ''Since sorrow never comes too late, and happiness too swiftly dies, why should they know their fate?'' The punctuation here is correct, as would also be a comma after fate and a query after flies; but some editors have a comma after flies."

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186.

97.5 flies.] "flies? C[ommonplace] B[ook]." H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"flies? C[ommonplace] B[ook]."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 9.

97.5 flies.] "flies?   Commonplace Book." R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"flies?   Commonplace Book."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

Add a note or query to this line

98 Thought would destroy their paradise. 3 Explanatory

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

98.1 - 100.5 Thought ... wise.] "Gray was a student of [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Gray was a student of Sophocles and has left some MS. notes on him; but it is a coincidence only that this thought of ignorance of ill as proper to childhood is found in the Ajax; where Ajax recovered from his madness and meditating suicide, addresses his infant son Eurysakes: (555)

[Four Greek lines (omitted)]
      ......I could well envy you
Because you have no inkling of these troubles:
The happiest life consists in ignorance,
Before you learn to grieve and to rejoice.
      (Sir G. Young.)
The sentiment, expressed in more general terms, is too common to be traced to one original. Luke quotes from Prior, Epistle to Hon. C. Montague:
''From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.''
And Mitford from Davenant's Just Italian, ''since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know.'' It is noticeable that Richardson puts this quotation into a letter from his Pamela (jealous of her Mr B---), ''But all this had been prevented, had not this nasty Mr Turner put into my head worse thoughts. For now I can say with the poet
'Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,
'Twere better not to know.' '' (Letter 72)
This is in the second part of Pamela, which was added in 1742; in what month published I do not know. Since in April 1742, as we see from a letter to West of that date, Gray had read Joseph Andrews, which was, inter alia, a burlesque of Pamela, we may suppose that he had read Pamela so far also; whether the continuation of Pamela had appeared before August, 1742, I cannot determine. I heard the late Professor H. A. J. Munro quote the passage above, in evidence that Gray had found in 'Pamela' the original of his own more famous lines. But long ago Montaigne had said (Essais, Livre I. c. xl.), ''A quoy faire la cognoissance des choses, si nous en devenons plus lasches? si nous en perdons le repos et la tranquillite ou nous serions sans cela?''
Gray has made the thought a 'household word.' His lines were at any rate known to Sterne when (1760 circ.) he wrote '' 'Gracious heavens!' cried my father, looking upwards and clasping his hands together - 'there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby - 'twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.' '' (Tristram Shandy III. chap. xviii.) But Sterne had read Montaigne as well as ''all such reading as was never read.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 96/97.

98.1-5 Thought ... paradise.] "Mitford sees a parallel between [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"Mitford sees a parallel between this line and l. 554 of the Ajax of Sophocles. Mr. J. C. Maxwell has also pointed out to us that there is a parallel in thought between Sophocles, Oedipus Coloneus, ll. 1225-38, and this ode."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 204.

Add a note or query to this line

99 No more; where ignorance is bliss, 4 Explanatory

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

98.1 - 100.5 Thought ... wise.] "Gray was a student of [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Gray was a student of Sophocles and has left some MS. notes on him; but it is a coincidence only that this thought of ignorance of ill as proper to childhood is found in the Ajax; where Ajax recovered from his madness and meditating suicide, addresses his infant son Eurysakes: (555)

[Four Greek lines (omitted)]
      ......I could well envy you
Because you have no inkling of these troubles:
The happiest life consists in ignorance,
Before you learn to grieve and to rejoice.
      (Sir G. Young.)
The sentiment, expressed in more general terms, is too common to be traced to one original. Luke quotes from Prior, Epistle to Hon. C. Montague:
''From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.''
And Mitford from Davenant's Just Italian, ''since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know.'' It is noticeable that Richardson puts this quotation into a letter from his Pamela (jealous of her Mr B---), ''But all this had been prevented, had not this nasty Mr Turner put into my head worse thoughts. For now I can say with the poet
'Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,
'Twere better not to know.' '' (Letter 72)
This is in the second part of Pamela, which was added in 1742; in what month published I do not know. Since in April 1742, as we see from a letter to West of that date, Gray had read Joseph Andrews, which was, inter alia, a burlesque of Pamela, we may suppose that he had read Pamela so far also; whether the continuation of Pamela had appeared before August, 1742, I cannot determine. I heard the late Professor H. A. J. Munro quote the passage above, in evidence that Gray had found in 'Pamela' the original of his own more famous lines. But long ago Montaigne had said (Essais, Livre I. c. xl.), ''A quoy faire la cognoissance des choses, si nous en devenons plus lasches? si nous en perdons le repos et la tranquillite ou nous serions sans cela?''
Gray has made the thought a 'household word.' His lines were at any rate known to Sterne when (1760 circ.) he wrote '' 'Gracious heavens!' cried my father, looking upwards and clasping his hands together - 'there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby - 'twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.' '' (Tristram Shandy III. chap. xviii.) But Sterne had read Montaigne as well as ''all such reading as was never read.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 96/97.

99.1 - 100.5 No ... wise.] "Many parallels with the thought [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Many parallels with the thought of these two lines have been noted, although it is not clear that G[ray]. had any one of them in mind: e.g. Sophocles, Ajax 554-5: 'of woes thou knowest naught, for ignorance is life's extremest bliss'; Terence, Hecyra 286-7: nam nos omnes quibus est alicunde aliquis obiectus labos, / omne quod est interea tempus prius quam id rescitumst lucrost (If our path ahead is blocked with any trouble, all the time before we find it out is always pure gain); Davenant, The Just Italian V i Song: 'Since Knowledge is but sorrow's Spy, / It is not safe to know'; Prior, To the Hon C. Montagu 33-6: 'If We see right, We see our Woes: / Then what avails it to have Eyes? / From Ignorance our Comfort flows: / The only wretched are the Wise.' Edmund Blunden, in a pamphlet entitled The Musical Miscellany (Tokyo, 1949) p. 5, pointed out a close parallel with a song by Lewis Theobald, 'The Invitation' 10-11, in The Musical Miscellany ii (1729) 157: 'Then, like true Sons of Joy, Let's laugh at the Precise: / When Wisdom grows austere, 'tis Folly to be wise.' See also Pope, Essay on Man i 77-85 (showing that 'His happiness depends on his Ignorance to a certain degree') ; Cicero, De Divinat. II ix 22; II Henry IV III i 45, 53-6; and Izaak Walton, Life of Wotton (Wotton's reflections on his school-days at Winchester, noted in the Gentleman's Mag. lxviii (1798) 481). Other 'sources' have been discovered in Euripides, Martial, Montaigne and Robert Heath."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

99.1 - 100.5 No ... wise.] "Although these are two of [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Although these are two of Gray's most famous lines, the idea has a history dating back at least as far as Sophocles."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

Add a note or query to this line

100 'Tis folly to be wise. 5 Explanatory, 1 Textual

91.1 - 100.5 To ... wise.] "Sir H. Wotton, Provost of [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1903 [1st ed. 1891].

"Sir H. Wotton, Provost of Eton, the summer before his death visited Winchester College where he had been educated, and when he was returning to Eton, he made the following reflections, as given in his Life by Isaac Walton: -

''How useful was the advice of a holy monk, who persuaded his friend to perform his customary devotions in a constant place, because in that place we usually meet with those very thoughts which possessed us at our last being there; and I find it thus far experimentally true, that at now being in that school, and seeing that very place, where I sat when I was a boy, occasioned me to remember those very thoughts of my youth which then possessed me; sweet thoughts indeed, that promised my growing years numerous pleasures without mixture of cares, and those to be enjoyed when time (when I therefore thought slow-paced) had changed my youth into manhood. But age and experience have taught me that these were but empty hopes; for I now always found it true, as my Saviour did foretell, 'Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.' Nevertheless, I saw there a succession of boys using the same recreations, and questionless possessed with the same thoughts that then possessed me. Thus one generation succeeds another in their lives, recreations, hopes, fears, and death.''
A correspondent of the ''Gentleman's Magazine,'' June, 1798, considers that this passage may have ''occasioned'' Gray's writing the ''Ode on Eton.''"

The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891], 186/187.

98.1 - 100.5 Thought ... wise.] "Gray was a student of [...]" D.C. Tovey, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

"Gray was a student of Sophocles and has left some MS. notes on him; but it is a coincidence only that this thought of ignorance of ill as proper to childhood is found in the Ajax; where Ajax recovered from his madness and meditating suicide, addresses his infant son Eurysakes: (555)

[Four Greek lines (omitted)]
      ......I could well envy you
Because you have no inkling of these troubles:
The happiest life consists in ignorance,
Before you learn to grieve and to rejoice.
      (Sir G. Young.)
The sentiment, expressed in more general terms, is too common to be traced to one original. Luke quotes from Prior, Epistle to Hon. C. Montague:
''From ignorance our comfort flows,
The only wretched are the wise.''
And Mitford from Davenant's Just Italian, ''since knowledge is but sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know.'' It is noticeable that Richardson puts this quotation into a letter from his Pamela (jealous of her Mr B---), ''But all this had been prevented, had not this nasty Mr Turner put into my head worse thoughts. For now I can say with the poet
'Since knowledge is but sorrow's spy,
'Twere better not to know.' '' (Letter 72)
This is in the second part of Pamela, which was added in 1742; in what month published I do not know. Since in April 1742, as we see from a letter to West of that date, Gray had read Joseph Andrews, which was, inter alia, a burlesque of Pamela, we may suppose that he had read Pamela so far also; whether the continuation of Pamela had appeared before August, 1742, I cannot determine. I heard the late Professor H. A. J. Munro quote the passage above, in evidence that Gray had found in 'Pamela' the original of his own more famous lines. But long ago Montaigne had said (Essais, Livre I. c. xl.), ''A quoy faire la cognoissance des choses, si nous en devenons plus lasches? si nous en perdons le repos et la tranquillite ou nous serions sans cela?''
Gray has made the thought a 'household word.' His lines were at any rate known to Sterne when (1760 circ.) he wrote '' 'Gracious heavens!' cried my father, looking upwards and clasping his hands together - 'there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby - 'twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.' '' (Tristram Shandy III. chap. xviii.) But Sterne had read Montaigne as well as ''all such reading as was never read.'' "

Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898], 96/97.

99.1 - 100.5 No ... wise.] "Many parallels with the thought [...]" R. Lonsdale, 1969.

"Many parallels with the thought of these two lines have been noted, although it is not clear that G[ray]. had any one of them in mind: e.g. Sophocles, Ajax 554-5: 'of woes thou knowest naught, for ignorance is life's extremest bliss'; Terence, Hecyra 286-7: nam nos omnes quibus est alicunde aliquis obiectus labos, / omne quod est interea tempus prius quam id rescitumst lucrost (If our path ahead is blocked with any trouble, all the time before we find it out is always pure gain); Davenant, The Just Italian V i Song: 'Since Knowledge is but sorrow's Spy, / It is not safe to know'; Prior, To the Hon C. Montagu 33-6: 'If We see right, We see our Woes: / Then what avails it to have Eyes? / From Ignorance our Comfort flows: / The only wretched are the Wise.' Edmund Blunden, in a pamphlet entitled The Musical Miscellany (Tokyo, 1949) p. 5, pointed out a close parallel with a song by Lewis Theobald, 'The Invitation' 10-11, in The Musical Miscellany ii (1729) 157: 'Then, like true Sons of Joy, Let's laugh at the Precise: / When Wisdom grows austere, 'tis Folly to be wise.' See also Pope, Essay on Man i 77-85 (showing that 'His happiness depends on his Ignorance to a certain degree') ; Cicero, De Divinat. II ix 22; II Henry IV III i 45, 53-6; and Izaak Walton, Life of Wotton (Wotton's reflections on his school-days at Winchester, noted in the Gentleman's Mag. lxviii (1798) 481). Other 'sources' have been discovered in Euripides, Martial, Montaigne and Robert Heath."

The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969, 63.

99.1 - 100.5 No ... wise.] "Although these are two of [...]" J. Reeves, 1973.

"Although these are two of Gray's most famous lines, the idea has a history dating back at least as far as Sophocles."

The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973, 110.

100.1-5 'Tis ... wise.] "At the end of the [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.

"At the end of the poem in C[ommonplace] B[ook] is written at Stoke, Aug: 1742."

The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 10.

100.1-5 'Tis ... wise.] "In reading some of Thomas' [...]" Joseph J Young, 2011.

"In reading some of Thomas' thoughts on returning to his old school and there remembering the simplicity and innocence of his youth it appears he is joining two worlds together in this line of the poem. A world that has not grown up yet, and one that has. A world that shaped him into a man and perhaps, as with many, has beaten out those innocent aspirations of early life. The reality of pain and suffering, disappointments and struggle, triumph through adversity. I am almost believing he thought it pure evil to interrupt such ignorance of growing up with the wisdom life brings you as you live it."

Joseph J Young <>. Contributed on Mon Oct 17 22:49:43 2011 GMT.

Add a note or query to this line

Gray's annotations

4
[Henry's.] King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the College.
19
And bees their honey redolent of spring.
    Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System. [l. 110 of Dryden's translation of Ovid, Metamorphoses, xv]
79
— [And] Madness laughing in his ireful mood.
    Dryden's Fable of Palamon and Arcite. [ii. 582]

Works cited

  • The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
  • Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
  • Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
  • Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
  • The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i.
  • Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
  • The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
  • The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
  • Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894.
  • The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
  • The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
  • Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].

Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been lightly modernized. Additional contextual information for Gray's notes, presented here in unmodernized form, has been taken from the Starr/Hendrickson edition. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.

About this text

  • Composition: 1742
  • Publication: 1747
  • Base text: 1768
  • Metre: iambic tetrameters and trimeters
  • Rhyme scheme: ababccdeed
  • Stanza: ten line stanza
  • Genre: Horatian Ode, allegorical/descriptive ode
  • Finding Aid: MS witnesses
  • Notes/Queries: 173
  • Source: TEI/XML
  • Visualization: Poem Viewer

Editions in the Digital Library

  • 1747: An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. London, 1747.
  • 1753: Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. London, 1753.
  • 1753: Designs by Mr. R. Bentley, for six poems by Mr. T. Gray. London, 1753.
  • 1765 vol. ii: A Collection of Poems in six volumes. By several hands. Vol. ii. London, 1765 [1st ed. 1758, two vols. 1748].
  • 1768: Poems by Mr. Gray. London, 1768.
  • 1768: Poems by Mr. Gray. A new edition. London, 1768 [1st ed. 1768].
  • 1768: Poems by Mr. Gray. Glasgow, 1768.
  • 1768: Poems by Mr. Gray. Dublin, 1768.
  • 1768: Poems by Mr. T. Gray. Cork, 1768.
  • 1771: Poems by Mr. Gray. A new edition. London, 1771.
  • 1771: Poems by Thomas Gray. Dublin, 1771.
  • 1773: Poems by Mr. Gray. Glasgow, 1773.
  • 1773: Poems by Mr. Gray. Edinburgh, 1773.
  • 1775: The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York, 1775.
  • 1775: The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. Dublin, 1775.
  • 1775: Poems by Mr. Gray. A new edition. Edinburgh, 1775.
  • 1775: Poems by Mr. Gray. Dublin, 1775.
  • 1776: Poems by Mr. Gray. A new edition. London, 1776.
  • 1782: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. Edinburg, 1782.
  • 1798: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1798.
  • 1799: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, [1799].
  • 1799: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, LL.B. London, 1799.
  • 1800: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, LL.B. London, 1800.
  • 1800: The Poems of Gray. A new edition. London, 1800.
  • 1805: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1805.
  • 1814: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1814.
  • 1814: The Works of Thomas Gray, Vol. I. Ed. Thomas James Mathias. London, 1814.
  • 1816: The Works of Thomas Gray, Vol. I. Ed. John Mitford. London, 1816.
  • 1826: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1826.
  • 1836: The Works of Thomas Gray, Volume I. Ed. John Mitford. London, 1836.