Skip main navigation

"Ode to Adversity"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.otad
    • Uniform Title: "Ode to Adversity" [e-text]
    • First Line: Daughter of Jove, relentless power,
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1753
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 10-11; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 68-74
    • Summary: Completed at Stoke Poges by August 1742 and sent in a letter to Horace Walpole, 8 September [1751]. First published, as "Hymn to Adversity", in Dodsley's Designs (1753), [24].

    8 Manuscripts:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0122 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ode. To Adversity"
      • Date: August 1742
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; autograph fair copy
      • Language: English
      • Location: Commonplace Book, Vol. I, 284-285, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>
      • Alternate Form: Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel one
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 103, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 25; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, revised, here entitled "Ode. To Adversity" and annotated "at Stoke, Aug. 1742", including two mottoes in Greek from Aeschylus, in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. I, 284-285.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0123 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Hymn to Adversity"
      • Date: 8 September [1751]
      • Physical Description: [2?] pages; autograph fair copy, crossed out
      • Language: English
      • Location: MS L.C. II.90, No. 52, College Library, Pembroke College, Cambridge, Cambridge, UK <http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/>
      • Alternate Form: Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel two
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 104, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 33; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), letter no. 161, vol. i, 346-350 (subscription required); Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 415
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Hymn to Adversity" (crossed out), in a letter to Horace Walpole, 8 September [1751].

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0124 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1?] February 1768
      • Physical Description: 1 page, 324 mm x 200 mm; autograph, partial [motto only]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Add. MS 38511, f. 3r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 105, 89; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
      • Contents: Autograph motto for the poem, untitled but numbered 4. and identified on f. 3r as "4. Ode, to Adversity", in MS instructions to Dodsley for the 1768 London edition, sent in a letter, [1?] February 1768. The motto first appeared in the poem's version in Poems (1768).

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0125 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: 1 February 1768
      • Physical Description: [1?] page, 324 mm x 200 mm; autograph, partial [motto only]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Modern (Bound) Manuscripts, Vol. 52, Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature, Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ, USA <http://rbsc.princeton.edu/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 106, 89; Heist, Michael, "RE: Modern (Bound) Manuscripts, vol.52, Robert H. Taylor Collection". E-mail to the editor, 11 January 2007
      • Contents: Autograph motto for the poem in MS instructions to Beattie for the 1768 Glasgow edition, originally sent in a letter, 1 February 1768.
      • Separated Material: The letter in which these instructions were originally sent is now at Historic Collections, King's College, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0219 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ode to Adversity"
      • Date: 1780[?]
      • Physical Description: 7 pages, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand on Whatman paper
      • Language: English
      • Location: MS Add. 439, "Poems" section, 25-31, The Archives, York Minster Library & Archives, York, UK <https://yorkminster.org/treasures-and-collections.html>
      • Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Ode to Adversity" (p. 25) ("Ode. IV." [p. 27]). The poem, which includes the motto in Greek and attribution on the title page, is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.


      • Archive MS ID: mss.0268 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Hymn to adversity"
      • Date: [between 1768 and 1769]
      • Physical Description: [?] pages, 190mm x 130mm (volume); transcript
      • Language: English
      • Location: c.156, 110, Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
      • References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 175, item D0034; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 16 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10635>
      • Contents: Transcript, entitled "Hymn to adversity", in a Commonplace book entitled Amusements 1768-69, a manuscript, in two hands, of a collection of several dozen primarily serious poems and poetical extracts, many on moral and elegiac subjects.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0269 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Hymn to adversity"
      • Date: [between 1766 and 1800]
      • Physical Description: [?] pages; transcript in the hand of James Forbes
      • Language: English
      • Location: fc.132, vol. I, 147, Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
      • References: Parks, Stephen et al. (ed.), Osborn Collection First-Line Index. New Haven: Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2005, 175, item D0034; Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 16 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=10637>
      • Contents: Transcript, entitled "Hymn to adversity", in James Forbes' Commonplace book, 1766-1800, vol. I "Poems on Several Occasions Collected from Different Authors", a manuscript collection of approximately 150 poems and excerpts, primarily epitaphs and elegies, poems in praise of virtues, odes dedicated to women, and poems on nature and weather.

Contents

Manuscripts