Poems, [ca. 1725]-1771

• "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.bapo
  • Uniform Title: "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode" [e-text]
  • First Line: 'Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1757
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 18-24; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 177-200
  • Summary: Begun late in 1754 and initially abandoned by August 1755, then taken up again, completed and revised, between May and August 1757. Gray sent the earlier parts of the poem in letters to Thomas Wharton, dated 6 August 1755 (ll. 1-56), and to Richard Stonhewer, dated 21 August 1755 (ll. 63-100), the latter part (ll. 111-144) to William Mason, dated [24 or 31] May 1757. First published, as "Ode II." in Odes by Mr. Gray (1757), 12-21.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0022 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "Gazetta Litteraire de l'Europe. 1764. Tom: 3. p: 259"
    • Date: 1764
    • Physical Description: 3 pages; autograph transcript
    • Language: French
    • Location: MS 351, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 18, 80; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 413; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 606, 10
    • Contents: Autograph transcript of a translation into French prose, headed "Gazetta Litteraire de l'Europe. 1764. Tom: 3. p: 259". The translation is unlikely to be Gray's.
    
    
  
  

• "[Couplet about Birds]"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.coub
  • Uniform Title: "[Couplet about Birds]" [e-text]
  • First Line: There pipes the woodlark, and the song-thrush there
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1814
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 106; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 279-280
  • Summary: Composed at Cambridge in spring, presumably between 1763 and 1767, in the company of Norton Nicholls. First published in Mathias (ed.), Works (1814), vol. II, 596.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0028 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: [untitled]
    • Date: November 1805
    • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript in the hand of Norton Nicholls
    • Language: English
    • Location: John Morris Collection, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • References: Mitford (ed.), Works (1843), vol. v, 34; Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 21, 81; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), vol. iii, 1290
    • Contents: Transcript, untitled, in the hand of Norton Nicholls, in his MS Reminiscences of Gray, p. 5.
    
    
  
  

• "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.elcc
  • Uniform Title: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" [e-text]
  • First Line: The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1751
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 37-43; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 103-141
  • Summary: Begun c. 1745 and completed early in June 1750 at Stoke Poges. Gray sent the poem in a letter to Horace Walpole dated 12 June 1750. First published, as "An Elegy wrote in a Country Church Yard" and printed by Dodsley, in 1751.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0043 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "Stanza's wrote in a Country Church-Yard"
    • Date: [1749?]
    • Physical Description: 4 pages; autograph draft
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS 281A, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • Alternate Form: Several facsimiles, including P. J. Croft, Autograph Poetry in the English Language, 2 vols, (Oxford, 1969), Sherburn (ed.), Elegy (1951), and Elegy (1976), where the MS and its provenance are discussed
    • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 32, 82; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414; Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), additional lines in the "Eton MS", 40-41nn; Fukuhara/Bergen, Elegy (1933); Northup, Bibliography (1917), item 1995; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 602, 9, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53, 40-41, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 226, 69; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53,] 8-9
    • Contents: Autograph draft, here entitled "Stanza's wrote in a Country Church-Yard", and reading "Curfeu". This MS, sometimes called the "Eton MS" or "Fraser MS", contains five additional stanzas (four after l. 72, and the "Redbreast stanza" after l. 116), which were omitted in the first edition of 1751, in 1753, and in 1768.
    • Related Material: MSS 0210, 0211, and 0212.
    
    
  
  

• "[Epitaph on Mrs Mason]"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.epmm
  • Uniform Title: "[Epitaph on Mrs Mason]" [e-text]
  • First Line: Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die
  • Language: English
  • First Published: [1767] (pr. 1784)
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 105; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 255-256
  • Summary: Written between 27 March and 23 May 1767 for Mason's wife Mary who died on 27 March 1767 aged 28. Inscribed on a monument in Bristol Cathedral, [1767]. First published in The New Foundling Hospital for Wit (London, new edn. 1784), vi. 45. Transcripts of Mason's own epitaph on his wife beginning "Take, holy Earth, all that my soul holds dear", are at PwV 304 and 1010(ii), Portland Collection, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0056 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: [untitled]
    • Date: November 1805
    • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript in the hand of Norton Nicholls
    • Language: English
    • Location: John Morris Collection, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • References: Mitford (ed.), Works (1843), vol. v, 40; Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 44, 83; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), vol. iii, 1294
    • Contents: Transcript in the hand of Norton Nicholls, in his MS Reminiscences of Gray, p. 12.
    
    
  
  

• "[Latin exercise from the Tatler]"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.lt17
  • Uniform Title: "[Latin exercise from the Tatler]" [e-text]
  • First Line: . . . pluviaeque loquaces
  • Language: Latin
  • First Published: 1814
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 112 (with English prose translation); Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 285 (with English prose translation)
  • Summary: Composed as a school exercise at Eton, possibly in 1731. First published in Mathias (ed.), Works (1814), vol. II, 596.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0092 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: [untitled]
    • Date: November 1805
    • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript in the hand of Norton Nicholls
    • Language: Latin
    • Location: John Morris Collection, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • References: Mitford (ed.), Works (1843), vol. v, 34; Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 77, 86; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), vol. iii, 1290
    • Contents: Transcript, untitled, in the hand of Norton Nicholls, in his MS Reminiscences of Gray, 5.
    
    
  
  

• "Ode for Music"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.ocmu
  • Uniform Title: "Ode for Music" [e-text]
  • First Line: "Hence, avaunt, ('tis holy ground)
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1769
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 48-51; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 264-274
  • Summary: Written at Cambridge between 6 February and 20 April 1769 for the installation of the Duke of Grafton as Chancellor of the University, 1 July 1769. First published, anonymously, as Ode performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge... (1769), a copy of the first edition with an autograph note is at the Henry W. And Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0101 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: [untitled]
    • Date: November 1805
    • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript in the hand of Norton Nicholls, partial [l. 1]
    • Language: English
    • Location: John Morris Collection, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • References: Mitford (ed.), Works (1843), vol. v, 50; Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 87, 87; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), vol. iii, 1301
    • Contents: Transcript of l. 1 in the hand of Norton Nicholls, in his MS Reminiscences of Gray, p. 26.
    
    
  
  

• "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College"

  • Archive Work ID: poems.odec
  • Uniform Title: "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" [e-text]
  • First Line: Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
  • Language: English
  • First Published: 1747
  • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 7-10; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 54-63
  • Summary: Written at Stoke Poges c. August 1742 during one of Gray's most productive periods. First published, anonymously, as a folio pamphlet by Dodsley, 30 May 1747.

  1 Manuscript:

  • • Archive MS ID: mss.0103 (Source: EAD/XML)
    • Title: "Ode, on a Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country"
    • Date: 1743
    • Physical Description: 3 pages; autograph fair copy
    • Language: English
    • Location: MS 281B, College Library, Eton College, Windsor, UK <http://www.etoncollege.com/collegelibrary.aspx>
    • Alternate Form: Facsimile in Illustrated London News 132 (20 June 1908), 896
    • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 88, 87; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
    • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Ode, on a Prospect of Windsor, & the adjacent Country, in 1743".