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"On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t"

[Digital Library showcase image]You can access the commentary for this poem by browsing through it by lines, by using the find reference form below to specify the passage of interest in the text, or by searching the commentary available for the text. When browsing, please select the line numbers for Gray's own annotations and the letters in front of the line numbers to access the editors' and contributors' commentary types: "T" for variants and textual notes, "E" for explanatory notes, and "T/E" for both types (where applicable). You will then be shown what commentary exists on this passage based on your selection criteria. If you need more detailed options, please use the find reference form below. You can always modify or add to your selection criteria, or choose a different approach to exploring the text. Please see below for an introductory editorial note on the text and for a list of printed works cited in the commentary. You can also consult this help section for more information.

Commentary:  Notes/Queries: 96 (Textual [T]: 61, Explanatory [E]: 35)

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[down]T E T/E "On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat near M[argat]e, K[en]t"    
      
 T   1    Old and abandoned by each venal friend,    
 T   2        Here H[olland] took the pious resolution    
 T E T/E3    To smuggle some few years and strive to mend    
 4        A broken character and constitution.    
  E  5    On this congenial spot he fixed his choice;    
 T E T/E6        Earl Godwin trembled for his neighbouring sand;    
  E  7    Here sea-gulls scream and cormorants rejoice,    
 T   8        And mariners, though shipwrecked, dread to land.    
 T E T/E9    Here reign the blustering North and blighting East,    
 10        No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing:    
 T E T/E11    Yet nature cannot furnish out the feast,    
 T   12        Art he invokes new horrors still to bring.    
 T E T/E13    Now mouldering fanes and battlements arise,    
 T E T/E14        Arches and turrets nodding to their fall,    
 T E T/E15    Unpeopled palaces delude his eyes,    
  E  16        And mimic desolation covers all.    
  E  17    "Ah", said the sighing peer, "had Bute been true,    
 T E T/E18        Nor Shelburne's, Rigby's, Calcraft's friendship vain,    
 T E T/E19    Far other scenes than these had blessed our view    
 T E T/E20        And realised the ruins that we feign.    
 T E T/E21    Purged by the sword and beautified by fire,    
  E  22        Then had we seen proud London's hated walls:    
 T E T/E23    Owls might have hooted in St Peter's choir,    
[up] E  24        And foxes stunk and littered in St Paul's."    

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Note on the text

Composition / Publication: 1768 / 1769Form: abab
Original Text: Wharton MSGenre: Ode
Editorial information: A brief introduction and a list of MS witnesses is available. Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been lightly modernized. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.
Versions of this text are available in the Digital Library:
  • 1798: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, 1798.
  • 1799: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray. London, [1799].
  • 1799: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, LL.B. London, 1799.
  • 1800: The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray, LL.B. London, 1800.
  • 1816: The Works of Thomas Gray, Vol. I. Ed. John Mitford. London, 1816.
  • 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.
  • [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].
  • [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.

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