"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.0148 (Source: EAD/XML)
  • Title: "Song"
  • Date: [after 1771]
  • Physical Description: 1 page; transcript in the hand of William Mason
  • Language: English
  • Location: Commonplace Book, Vol. III, 1105, 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 123, 91; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 30
  • Contents: Transcript in the hand of William Mason, here entitled "Song" and annotated "From an interlind & corrected Copy", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol. III, 1105.