Summary: Begun not earlier than September 1751 and completed by December 1754 when Gray sent the poem in a letter to Thomas Wharton, dated 26 December 1754. First published, as "Ode." in Odes by Mr. Gray (1757), 5.
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 114, 90; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 28; Martin, Chronologie (1931), 145
Contents: Autograph, revised, here entitled "Ode, in the Greek manner", the first line altered from "Awake my Lyre, my Glory, wake" to the first line as published, including an alternative version of five of the last six lines, and annotated "Finish'd in 1754. printed together with the Bard, an Ode. Aug: 8. 1757", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. II, 727-728.
Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 115, 90; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), letter no. 194, vol. i, 412-418 (subscription required); Starr, "Gray's Craftsmanship" (1946), particularly pp. 422-424
Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Ode, in the Greek Manner" and including the headings "Strophe", "Antistrophe", and "Epode", sent in and preceding a letter to Thomas Wharton, 26 December 1754.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 117, 90; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 20(b) "Ode to Poesy", 181; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 788(?), 20, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 45, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 241, 73; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 13
Contents: Autograph, revised, notes to the poem, in Gray's copy of Odes by Mr. Gray (1757). The notes were first published in the poem's version in Poems (1768).
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 118, 90; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
Contents: Autograph of the motto, advertisement, and notes to the poem, untitled but numbered 5. and identified on f. 3r as "5. The progress of Poesy, a Pindaric Ode", in MS instructions to Dodsley for the 1768London edition, sent in a letter, [1?] February 1768.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 119, 91; Heist, Michael, "RE: Modern (Bound) Manuscripts, vol.52, Robert H. Taylor Collection". E-mail to the editor, 11 January 2007
Contents: Autograph of the motto, advertisement, and 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.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 90; Catalogue of a Sotheby's sale (10 December 1913), lot 67, facsimile in catalogue; Toynbee, "Alleged Holograph of Gray" (1928), 834
Contents: An unlocated transcript in a copy of Designs (1753) was sold as autograph, Sotheby's (10 December 1913), lot 67 (with a facsimile).
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode" (p. 33) ("Ode. V." [p. 35]). The poem, which has numbered stanzas and includes the motto in Greek and attribution on the title page as well as Gray's notes to ll. 3, 13, 25, 42, 54, 66, 84, 95, 111, and 115, 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 of the poem, partial, beginning "Thoughts that breathe and words that burn", in the hand of William Pitter Woodhouse, in his Commonplace book of verse and prose by various authors, July-August 1827, vol. i (82 leaves), f. 80v.
References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 101, item A1906; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 16 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10642>
Contents: Transcript in the hand of John Freeman Milward Dovaston, entitled "Ode", in his autograph Select, and Miscellaneous Poems, Scraps, Mottos &c, 1773 and later, a Commonplace book of verse by Dovaston and others.
Contents: Transcript of 12 lines (ll. 83-94) in the hand of R. Barneby, beginning "Far from the sun and summer gale" (III.1) and signed "R. Barneby Aug.t 3rd. 1824."
![[MS image]](https://images.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-PEMBROKE-GRA-00001-00002-000-00270.jp2/full/100,/0/default.jpg)
Archive MS ID: mss.0138 (Source: EAD/XML)