"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"

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Go	Notes			Line	Text
	T	E	T/E		"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"
		E		1	Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
		E		2	That crown the watery glade,
		E		3	Where grateful Science still adores
		E		4	Her Henry's holy Shade;
		E		5	And ye, that from the stately brow
		E		6	Of Windsor's heights the expanse below
	T	E	T/E	7	Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey,
		E		8	Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among
		E		9	Wanders the hoary Thames along
		E		10	His silver-winding way.
		E		11	Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade,
		E		12	Ah fields beloved in vain,
		E		13	Where once my careless childhood strayed,
		E		14	A stranger yet to pain!
		E		15	I feel the gales, that from ye blow,
		E		16	A momentary bliss bestow,
		E		17	As waving fresh their gladsome wing,
		E		18	My weary soul they seem to soothe,
		E		19	And, redolent of joy and youth,
		E		20	To breathe a second spring.
		E		21	Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen
	T	E	T/E	22	Full many a sprightly race
		E		23	Disporting on thy margent green
		E		24	The paths of pleasure trace,
		E		25	Who foremost now delight to cleave
	T	E	T/E	26	With pliant arm thy glassy wave?
		E		27	The captive linnet which enthrall?
		E		28	What idle progeny succeed
	T	E	T/E	29	To chase the rolling circle's speed,
		E		30	Or urge the flying ball?
				31	While some on earnest business bent
		E		32	Their murmuring labours ply
		E		33	'Gainst graver hours, that bring constraint
				34	To sweeten liberty:
				35	Some bold adventurers disdain
		E		36	The limits of their little reign,
		E		37	And unknown regions dare descry:
				38	Still as they run they look behind,
		E		39	They hear a voice in every wind,
		E		40	And snatch a fearful joy.
	T	E	T/E	41	Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
		E		42	Less pleasing when possessed;
				43	The tear forgot as soon as shed,
		E		44	The sunshine of the breast:
		E		45	Their buxom health of rosy hue,
				46	Wild wit, invention ever-new,
		E		47	And lively cheer of vigour born;
		E		48	The thoughtless day, the easy night,
		E		49	The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
		E		50	That fly the approach of morn.
		E		51	Alas, regardless of their doom,
				52	The little victims play!
				53	No sense have they of ills to come,
				54	Nor care beyond today:
	T	E	T/E	55	Yet see how all around 'em wait
	T	E	T/E	56	The ministers of human fate,
				57	And black Misfortune's baleful train!
		E		58	Ah, show them where in ambush stand
	T	E	T/E	59	To seize their prey the murtherous band!
	T	E	T/E	60	Ah, tell them, they are men!
		E		61	These shall the fury Passions tear,
		E		62	The vultures of the mind,
		E		63	Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear,
		E		64	And Shame that skulks behind;
		E		65	Or pining Love shall waste their youth,
		E		66	Or Jealousy with rankling tooth,
		E		67	That inly gnaws the secret heart,
		E		68	And Envy wan, and faded Care,
		E		69	Grim-visaged comfortless Despair,
		E		70	And Sorrow's piercing dart.
	T	E	T/E	71	Ambition this shall tempt to rise,
		E		72	Then whirl the wretch from high,
		E		73	To bitter Scorn a sacrifice,
		E		74	And grinning Infamy.
	T	E	T/E	75	The stings of Falsehood those shall try,
		E		76	And hard Unkindness' altered eye,
		E		77	That mocks the tear it forced to flow;
		E		78	And keen Remorse with blood defiled,
		E		79	And moody Madness laughing wild
		E		80	Amid severest woe.
		E		81	Lo, in the vale of years beneath
		E		82	A grisly troop are seen,
		E		83	The painful family of Death,
		E		84	More hideous than their Queen:
		E		85	This racks the joints, this fires the veins,
		E		86	That every labouring sinew strains,
		E		87	Those in the deeper vitals rage:
		E		88	Lo, Poverty, to fill the band,
		E		89	That numbs the soul with icy hand,
		E		90	And slow-consuming Age.
		E		91	To each his sufferings: all are men,
		E		92	Condemned alike to groan;
		E		93	The tender for another's pain,
		E		94	The unfeeling for his own.
	T	E	T/E	95	Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
		E		96	Since sorrow never comes too late,
	T	E	T/E	97	And happiness too swiftly flies.
		E		98	Thought would destroy their paradise.
		E		99	No more; where ignorance is bliss,
	T	E	T/E	100	'Tis folly to be wise.

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• [BrJ_1903] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
• [CrJ_1948] Gray: Poetry and Prose. With essays by Johnson, Goldsmith and others. With an Introduction and Notes by J. Crofts. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1948 [1st ed. 1926].
• [EpW_1959] Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
• [F/G_1999] Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
• [GoE_1884] The Works of Thomas Gray: In Prose and Verse. Ed. by Edmund Gosse, in four vols. London: MacMillan and Co., 1884, vol. i.
• [HeJ_1981] Thomas Gray: Selected Poems. Ed. by John Heath-Stubbs. Manchester: Carcanet New Press Ltd., 1981.
• [LoR_1969] The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
• [P/W_1950] The Poems of Gray and Collins. Edited by Austin Lane Poole. Revised by Leonard Whibley. Third edition. Oxford editions of standard authors series. London: Oxford UP, 1937, reprinted 1950 [1st ed. 1919].
• [PhW_1894] Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray. Ed. with an introduction and notes by William Lyon Phelps. The Athenaeum press series. Boston: Ginn & company, 1894.
• [ReJ_1973] The Complete English Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by James Reeves. The Poetry Bookshelf series. London: Heinemann; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1973.
• [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.
• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].