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Poems, [ca. 1725]-1771

  • "The Bard. A Pindaric Ode"

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0019 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1757?]
      • Physical Description: [9?] pages; autograph, revised and partial [notes only]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Bound PML 16518 (extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes), Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 15, 80; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 788(?), 20, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 45, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 241, 73; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 13
      • Contents: Autograph notes to the poem, revised, in Gray's copy of Odes by Mr. Gray (1757). The notes were first published in the poem's version in Poems (1768).


  • "[Epitaph on a Child]"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.epld
    • Uniform Title: "[Epitaph on a Child]" [e-text]
    • First Line: Here, freed from pain, secure from misery, lies
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1884
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 104; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 209-210
    • Summary: Written in mid-June 1758 at the request of Thomas Wharton to commemorate his eldest son Robin who died in April 1758. First published in Gosse (ed.), Works (1884), vol. I, 126, from the transcript made by Alexander Dyce.

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0049 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1758?]
      • Physical Description: 1 page; autograph fair copy
      • Language: English
      • Location: Bound PML 16518 (extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes), 22, Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 37, 82; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 20(a) "epitaph on a child", 181; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 624(?), 11, Sotheby's sale (12 August 1847), lot 89, 27, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 41, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 228(?), 69; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 9; Nelson, Christine, "extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes". E-mail to the editor, 14 November 2006
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here untitled but endorsed 'Epitaph on a Child' in an unidentified hand, bound into Gray's copy of Odes (1757).


  • "The Fatal Sisters"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.fsio
    • Uniform Title: "The Fatal Sisters" [e-text]
    • First Line: Now the storm begins to lower,
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1768
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 27-31; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 210-220
    • Summary: Written at London not later than the beginning of May 1761, based largely on a Latin translation of the original poem preserved in the late 13th-century Njáls Saga, ch. 157. This untitled Old Norse poem is a prophetic account of the Battle of Clontarf, fought on Good Friday 1014. First published in Poems (1768).

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0063 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1761]
      • Physical Description: 3 pages, 203 mm x 159 mm; autograph fair copy, revised
      • Language: English
      • Location: MA 3390, Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • Alternate Form: Facsimile and description in Verlyn Klinkenborg et al., British Literary Manuscripts, Series I. From 800 to 1800 (New York, 1981), no. 99
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 49, 83-84; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 604, 9
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, revised, here untitled but referred to in the preface as a "magic song", beginning "Now the storm begins to lour", with the preface and a prose epilogue beginning "Having finish'd their incantation they tore the web they had woven into twelve pieces...", endorsed in another hand on verso. Bound into a copy of Poems (1768), following p. 71.


  • "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes"

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0110 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "On the Death of a favourite Cat drown'd in a China-Tub of Gold-Fishes"
      • Date: [1757?]
      • Physical Description: 2 pages, 157 mm x 102 mm; autograph fair copy
      • Language: English
      • Location: MA 3389, Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • Alternate Form: Facsimile and description in Verlyn Klinkenborg et al., British Literary Manuscripts, Series I. From 800 to 1800 (New York, 1981), no. 98. Reserve photocopy (microfilm copy) in RP149, Manuscripts Collection, The British Library, London, UK
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 94, 88; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414; Catalogue of a Sotheby's sale (18 July 1967), lot 537; Catalogue of a Christie's sale (A. A. Houghton sale, 14 June 1979), lot 234, with facsimile, plate 29
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "On the Death of a favourite Cat drown'd in a China-Tub of Gold-Fishes", annotated on verso in the hand of Carolina Pery "known to be Mr Gray's handwriting about the Year 1757".


  • [Orders of Insects]

    • Archive Work ID: poems.lt21
    • Uniform Title: [Orders of Insects] [e-text]
    • First Line: Alas lorica tectas Coleoptera jactant.
    • Language: Latin
    • First Published: 1814 and 1966
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 179-185 (with English prose translation); Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 337-342 (with English prose translation)
    • Summary: Begun not earlier than 1759, the year Gray bought his copy of Linnaeus, but possibly only in the last years of his life. The additional lines were presumably abandoned due to his last illness in 1771. First published, as Generick Characters of the Orders of Insects, and of the Genera of the first six Orders, named Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera; expressed in Technical Verses, in Mathias (ed.), Works (1814), vol. II, 570-573. Additional lines ("Palpos ore duos, triplexque Lepisma flagellum") first published in Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 185.

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0133 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [after 1759]
      • Physical Description: 1 page; autograph fragment, revised, additional lines
      • Language: Latin
      • Location: Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 4, 79, together with a list of books, item GrT 178, 97, cf. item GrT 233, 102; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 20(d), 181
      • Contents: Autograph fragment, revised, here untitled, five additional lines on one page, together with a list of books, later tipped(?) into Herbert Paul, Queen Anne (Asnières, 1906).


  • "The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric Ode"

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0141 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [before 1768]
      • Physical Description: [?] pages; autograph, partial [notes only]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Bound PML 16518 (extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes), Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 117, 90; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 20(b) "Ode to Poesy", 181; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 788(?), 20, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 45, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 241, 73; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 13
      • Contents: Autograph, revised, notes to the poem, in Gray's copy of Odes by Mr. Gray (1757). The notes were first published in the poem's version in Poems (1768).


  • "Song I"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.sng1
    • Uniform Title: "Song I" [e-text]
    • First Line: 'Midst beauty and pleasure's gay triumphs, to languish
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1797
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 99; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 240-241
    • Summary: Written before October 1761 at the request of Gray's friend Henrietta Speed. Walpole transcribed and sent it in a letter to Caroline Campbell, Countess of Ailesbury, 28 November 1761. First published, beginning "With beauty, with pleasure surrounded, to languish", in Pope's Works (1797), ed. Joseph Warton, vol. II, 285n. Entitled "Amatory Lines" by Mitford and Northup, Bibliography (1917), 61.

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0150 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [?]
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; transcript in an unidentified hand
      • Language: English
      • Location: Bound PML 16518 (extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes), 24-25, Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 125, 91; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 41, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 228(?), 69; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 9; Nelson, Christine, "extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes". E-mail to the editor, 14 November 2006
      • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand, apparently copied from an autograph MS, bound with Gray's copy of Odes (1757).


  • "Song II"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.sng2
    • Uniform Title: "Song II" [e-text]
    • First Line: Thyrsis, when we parted, swore
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1791
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 99-100; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 242-243
    • Summary: Written in October 1761 at the request of Gray's friend Henrietta Speed. First published in The European Magazine 19 (February 1791), 152.

    1 Manuscript:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0154 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [before the end of October 1761]
      • Physical Description: 1 page; autograph, revised
      • Language: English
      • Location: Bound PML 16518 (extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes), 19, Literary and Historical Manuscripts (LHMS), Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, USA <http://www.themorgan.org/collection>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 127, 91, with GrT 216, 101, on the verso; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 20(a) "Verses on Miss Speed", 181; Munby (ed.), Sale Catalogues (1971), Evans sale (27-29 November 1845), lot 624(?), 11, Sotheby's sale (12 August 1847), lot 90, 27, Sotheby's sale (28 August 1851), lot 53(?), 41, Sotheby's sale (4 August 1854), lot 228, 69; W[right]., Catalogue (1851), [lot 53?,] 9; Nelson, Christine, "extra-illustrated copy of Gray's Odes". E-mail to the editor, 14 November 2006
      • Contents: Autograph, revised, here untitled, bound into Gray's copy of Odes (1757).


Contents

  • Collection: Poems, [ca. 1725]-1771
  • Location: Morgan Library & Museum
  • Works: 9
  • Manuscripts: 9

Works