Written at
Cambridge
when Gray was about to join
Richard
West
(Favonius) at the
Inner Temple, where they intended to study law together.
First published, untitled but referred to in a footnote as a
Sapphic Ode, in
Mason's
Memoirs (1775), section I, letter no. XIV. Mason is the only source for this
letter,
dated June 1738, in which Gray originally
sent the poem to West.
MS translation into English by
Thomas
Wharton
.