"The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode"

• Archive Work ID: poems.pppo
• Uniform Title: "The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode" [e-text]
• First Line: Awake, Aeolian lyre, awake,
• Language: English
• First Published: 1757
• References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 12-17; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 155-177
• 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.

1 Manuscript:

• • Archive MS ID: mss.0220 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode"
  • Date: 1780[?]
  • Physical Description: 13 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
  • Language: English
  • Location: MS Add. 439, "Poems" section, 33-45, The Archives, York Minster Library & Archives, York, UK <https://yorkminster.org/treasures-and-collections.html>
  • 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.