"[Alcaic Ode]"

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Commentary: Notes/Queries: 2 (Textual [T]: 0, Explanatory [E]: 2)

	Line	Text
E		"[Alcaic Ode]"

		In the Book at the Grande Chartreuse
		among the Mountains of Dauphiné.

	1	O Tu, severi relligio loci,
	2	Quocunque gaudes nomine (non leve
	3	Nativa nam certe fluenta
	4	Numen habet, veteresque sylvas;
	5	Praesentiorem et conspicimus Deum
	6	Per invias rupes, fera per juga,
	7	Clivosque praeruptos, sonantes
	8	Inter aquas, nemorumque noctem;
	9	Quam si repostus sub trabe citrea
	10	Fulgeret auro, et Phidiaca manu)
	11	Salve vocanti rite, fesso et
	12	Da placidam juveni quietem.
	13	Quod si invidendis sedibus, et frui
	14	Fortuna sacra lege silentii
	15	Vetat volentem, me resorbens
	16	In medios violenta fluctus:
	17	Saltem remoto des, Pater, angulo
	18	Horas senectae ducere liberas;
	19	Tutumque vulgari tumultu
	20	Surripias, hominumque curis.

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Note on the text

Composition / Publication: 1741 / 1775	Form: —
Original Text: Commonplace Book	Genre: Alcaic Ode
Editorial information: A brief introduction and a list of MS witnesses is available. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Initial letters of sentences have been capitalized, all accents have been removed. The editor would like to express his gratitude to library staff at Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the British Library, and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their invaluable assistance.
Versions of this text are available in the Digital Library: 1775: The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed Memoirs of his Life and Writings by W[illiam]. Mason. York, 1775. 1775: The Latin Odes of Mr. Gray, in English verse, with An Ode on the Death of a favorite Spaniel [by E. B. G.] London, 1775. 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. 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.

Works cited in the commentary

[BrJ_1891] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891.
[S/H_1966] The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.

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