Summary: Composed at Stoke Poges shortly after the death of Richard West, Gray's closest friend, on 1 June 1742. First published, entitled "Sonnet On the Death of Mr. Richard West", in Mason'sPoems (1775), 60.
Alternate Form:
Microfilm copy available in Poetic Commonplace Books and Manuscripts of Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, from Pembroke College, Cambridge (1999), reel one, facsimile in Gosse (ed.), Works (1884), vol. iv, frontispiece
References: Smith (ed.), Index (1989), item GrT 133, 92; Poetic C. B., Pembroke College (1999), 25
Contents: Autograph fair copy, here entitled "Sonnet" and annotated "at Stoke, Aug: 1742", in Gray's Commonplace Book, vol I, 284. It is listed as "West (Richard) Sonnet, on him" in Gray's index to vol II.
Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.
References: Sutton (ed.), Location Register (1995), 415; Young, Anne, "Re: English MS 656/74". Two e-mails to the editor, 16 and 18 August 2006
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified hand, probably addressed to Hester Lynch Thrale, in a section of the Thrale Piozzi Collection described as "Poems in various hands, some initialled or signed, other copied... there are 135 items, dated between c. 1735 and 1820." Beneath the sonnet is written "This is the Sonnet I was mentioning to you of Grays which you did not recollect...".
Surrogates: Digital facsimile [JPEG] from original MS available online.
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West" (p. 105) ("Sonnet." [p. 107]). 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.