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"Ode on the Spring"

    • Archive Work ID: poems.oots
    • Uniform Title: "Ode on the Spring" [e-text]
    • First Line: Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,
    • Language: English
    • First Published: 1748
    • References: Starr/Hendrickson (eds.), Complete Poems (1966), 3-4; Lonsdale (ed.), Poems (1969), 47-53
    • Summary: Written at Stoke Poges early in June 1742 and sent in a letter, [c. 3 June 1742], to Richard West who was then dead. The letter was returned unopened and does not survive. First published, anonymously, in Dodsley's Collection of Poems by Several Hands, 3 vols, vol. II. (London, 1748), 265-267, reprinted in 6 vols, vol. II. (London, 1758 and later edns.), 325-327.

    10 Manuscripts:

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0116 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1742?]
      • Physical Description: 1 page; autograph, revised, partial [ll. 3-4]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Manuscript Collections, The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 97, 88, written on a leaf of random notes, item GrT 206, 100; Jones, Thomas Gray, Scholar (1937), "Register of Gray Autograph Manuscripts", VI. 5, 178
      • Contents: Autograph fragment, revised, of ll. 3-4, here untitled and beginning "Disclosed the breathing flowers", on a leaf of random notes.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0117 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1742?]
      • Physical Description: [2?] pages; autograph draft written in ink and red pencil, partial [ll. 11-36, 43-50]
      • Language: English
      • Location: GEN MSS 310, Box 8, Folder 340, Chauncey Brewster Tinker Manuscripts Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT (Beinecke)/Farmington, CT (Lewis Walpole), USA <http://www.library.yale.edu/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 98, 88-89, on same leaf as item GrT 215, 101
      • Contents: Autograph draft fragment, ll. 11-20 (in ink, second half of each line only), 21-36 (in red pencil, second half of each line only), 43-50 (in red pencil, first half of each line only), annotated "This was the original manuscript copy of Gray's Ode found amongst his papers by W. Mason who gave it to me E. Harcourt".

      • [MS image]Archive MS ID: mss.0118 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Noon-Tide, An Ode"
      • Date: beginning of June 1742
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; autograph fair copy
      • Language: English
      • Location: GBR/1058/GRA/1, Commonplace Book, Vol. I, 275, 278, 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 99, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 24
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Noon-Tide, An Ode", and beginning "Lo, where the rosie-bosom'd Hours", annotated "at Stoke, the beginning of June, 1742. sent to Fav: not knowing he was then Dead", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. I, 275 and continued on p. 278.
      • Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0119 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: 20 October [1746]
      • Physical Description: 2 pages; autograph fair copy
      • Language: English
      • Location: GBR/1058/GRA/3/4/41, 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 100, 89; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 33; Toynbee/Whibley (eds.), Correspondence (1971), letter no. 125, vol. i, 249-252 (subscription required); Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 415
      • Contents: Autograph fair copy, here untitled, in a letter to Horace Walpole, 20 October [1746].

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0120 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [1?] February 1768
      • Physical Description: 1 page, 324 mm x 200 mm; autograph, partial [notes 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 101, 89; Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 414
      • Contents: Autograph notes to the poem, untitled but numbered 1. and identified on f. 3r as "1. Ode. (Lo, where the rosy-bosom'd &c:)" in MS instructions to Dodsley for the 1768 London edition, sent in a letter, [1?] February 1768. The notes were first published in the poem's version in Poems (1768).

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0121 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: 1 February 1768
      • Physical Description: [1?] page, 324 mm x 200 mm; autograph, partial [notes 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 102, 89; Heist, Michael, "RE: Modern (Bound) Manuscripts, vol.52, Robert H. Taylor Collection". E-mail to the editor, 11 January 2007
      • Contents: Autograph notes to 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.0216 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Ode on the Spring"
      • 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, 1-7, 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 on the Spring" (p. 1) ("Ode. I." [p. 3]). The poem 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.0250 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: [untitled]
      • Date: [before 1860]
      • Physical Description: 4 pages, c. 190 mm x 115 mm; transcript (lines 1-7, 11-50) in the hand of George Hamilton-Gordon
      • Language: English
      • Location: Add. MS 43347, ff. 51-52, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
      • References: Nelson (ed.), Union First Line Index. Mar. 2010. Folger Shakespeare Library. 9 April 2010. <http://firstlines.folger.edu/detail.php?id=107683>
      • Contents: Transcript (lines 1-7, 11-50) in the hand of George Gordon, afterwards (1818) Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, K.G., K.T., Prime Minister (b. 1784, d. 1860) in his Aberdeen Papers, Vol. CCCIX (ff. 210) "Miscellaneous papers", section 2 "Miscellaneous English occasional verse, centring chiefly round George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, and the circle of visitors he met at Bentley Priory, Stanmore, the home of his father-in-law, John James Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn, which became his own residence for many years", item q "Poem, beg. 'Lo! Where the rosy-bosom'd hours', ff. 51-52b".

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0115 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Lines"
      • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
      • Physical Description: 1 page, 180 mm x 115 mm; transcript in the hand of John Mitford, partial [ll. 3-4]
      • Language: English
      • Location: Add. MS 32561, f. 181r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 88
      • Contents: Transcript of ll. 3-4, in the hand of John Mitford, possibly transcribed from one of the autograph MSS., in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. III "Mitford. Extracts from Mr Grays Common-place books", f. 181r.

      • Archive MS ID: mss.0206 (Source: EAD/XML)
      • Title: "Lines"
      • Date: [between 1845 and 1856]
      • Physical Description: 1 page, 180 mm x 110 mm; transcript in the hand of John Mitford, partial [ll. 3-4] and crossed out
      • Language: English
      • Location: Add. MS 32562, f. 29r, Manuscripts Collection, British Library, London, UK <http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/manuscr/>
      • References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), 88
      • Contents: Transcript of ll. 3-4, in the hand of John Mitford (crossed out), possibly transcribed from one of the autograph MSS., in John Mitford, Note-Books, vol. IV, f. 29r.

Contents

Manuscripts