Summary: Begun not earlier than September 1751 and completed by December 1754 when Gray sent the poem in a letter to Thomas Wharton, dated 26 December 1754. First published, as "Ode." in Odes by Mr. Gray (1757), 5.
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 90; Catalogue of a Sotheby's sale (10 December 1913), lot 67, facsimile in catalogue; Toynbee, "Alleged Holograph of Gray" (1928), 834
Contents: An unlocated transcript in a copy of Designs (1753) was sold as autograph, Sotheby's (10 December 1913), lot 67 (with a facsimile).