Summary: Written at Stoke Pogesearly in June 1742 and sent in a letter, [c. 3 June 1742], to Richard West who was then dead. The letter was returned unopened and does not survive. First published, anonymously, in Dodsley'sCollection of Poems by Several Hands, 3 vols, vol. II. (London, 1748), 265-267, reprinted in 6 vols, vol. II. (London, 1758 and later edns.), 325-327.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 97, 88, written on a leaf of random notes, item GrT 206, 100; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 5, 178
Contents: Autograph fragment, revised, of ll. 3-4, here untitled and beginning "Disclosed the breathing flowers", on a leaf of random notes.
Physical Description: [2?] pages; autograph draft written in ink and red pencil, partial [ll. 11-36, 43-50]
Language: English
Location: GEN MSS 310, Box 8, Folder 340, Chauncey Brewster Tinker Manuscripts Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Library,
New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 98, 88-89, on same leaf as item GrT 215, 101
Contents: Autograph draft fragment, ll. 11-20 (in ink, second half of each line only), 21-36 (in red pencil, second half of each line only), 43-50 (in red pencil, first half of each line only), annotated "This was the original manuscript copy of Gray's Ode found amongst his papers by W. Mason who gave it to me E. Harcourt".
Alternate Form:
Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel one
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 99, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 24
Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Noon-Tide, An Ode", and beginning "Lo, where the rosie-bosom'd Hours", annotated "at Stoke, the beginning of June, 1742. sent to Fav: not knowing he was then Dead", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. I, 275 and continued on p. 278.
Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.
Alternate Form:
Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel two
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 100, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 33; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), letter no. 125, vol. i, 249-252 (subscription required); Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 415
Contents: Autograph fair copy, here untitled, in a letter to Horace Walpole, 20 October [1746].
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 101, 89; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
Contents: Autograph notes to the poem, untitled but numbered 1. and identified on f. 3r as "1. Ode. (Lo, where the rosy-bosom'd &c:)" in MS instructions to Dodsley for the 1768London edition, sent in a letter, [1?] February 1768. The notes were first published in the poem's version in Poems (1768).
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 102, 89; Heist, Michael, "RE: Modern (Bound) Manuscripts, vol.52, Robert H. Taylor Collection". E-mail to the editor, 11 January 2007
Contents: Autograph notes to the poem in MS instructions to Beattie for the 1768Glasgow edition, originally sent in a letter, 1 February 1768.
Separated Material: The letter in which these instructions were originally sent is now at Historic Collections, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Ode on the Spring" (p. 1) ("Ode. I." [p. 3]). The poem is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.
Contents: Transcript (lines 1-7, 11-50) in the hand of George Gordon, afterwards (1818) Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, K.G., K.T., Prime Minister (b. 1784, d. 1860) in his Aberdeen Papers, Vol. CCCIX (ff. 210) "Miscellaneous papers", section 2 "Miscellaneous English occasional verse, centring chiefly round George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, and the circle of visitors he met at Bentley Priory, Stanmore, the home of his father-in-law, John James Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn, which became his own residence for many years", item q "Poem, beg. 'Lo! Where the rosy-bosom'd hours', ff. 51-52b".
Contents: Transcript of ll. 3-4, in the hand of John Mitford, possibly transcribed from one of the autograph MSS., in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. III "Mitford. Extracts from Mr Grays Common-place books", f. 181r.
Contents: Transcript of ll. 3-4, in the hand of John Mitford (crossed out), possibly transcribed from one of the autograph MSS., in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. IV, f. 29r.