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Prose Works


Gray's prose (outside of his Commonplace Book) is dispersed widely in manuscripts, notebooks, diaries, and annotated print volumes. Below is a selection of Gray's prose from the Archive's digital library, primarily intended to highlight Gray's critical writing alongside his poetry and letter writing. The close relationship between Gray's poetic and critical writing is well-documented and finds expression in the essays below, many devoted to the understanding of the history and theory of lyric poetry as well as the analysis of individual texts. The prose works also highlight the many disciplinary strands of Gray's scholarly engagements, and although unpublished during his life-time, show Gray as a scholar who still managed to inscribe himself into the many knowledge networks he participated in. The prose is listed alphabetically by title.