[Epitaph on a Child]
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[Epitaph on a Child]
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Metrical foot type: iambic (-+)
Metrical foot number: pentameter (5 feet)
Rhyme scheme: aabbcc
Rhyme (stanza position): pair (aabb)
Syllable pattern: 10.10.10.10.10.10
Stanza: sestet (6 lines)
Notation symbols: | (foot boundary), || (caesura), / (metrical line boundary), + (metrically prominent), - (metrically non-prominent)
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Metre: -+|-+|-+|-+|-+/ | Syllables: 10
Expanding the poem lines () shows notes and queries taken from various critical editions of Gray's works, as well as those contributed by users of the Archive. There are 1 textual and 1 explanatory notes/queries.
[Epitaph on a Child] 1 Explanatory, 1 Textual Skip to next line
Title/Paratext] "This epitaph was written at [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"This epitaph was written at the request of Dr. Wharton, whose then only son died in infancy in April, 1758. Gray describes his difficulty in writing it in a letter to Wharton, dated June 18, 1758, as follows:—"You flatter me in thinking that anything I can do could at all alleviate the just concern your late loss has given you; but I cannot flatter myself so far, and know how little qualified I am at present to give any satisfaction to myself on this head, and in this way, much less to you. I by no means pretend to inspiration, but yet I affirm that the faculty in question is by no means voluntary. It is the result, I suppose, of a certain disposition of mind, which does not depend on oneself, and which I have not felt this long time. You that are a witness how seldom this spirit has moved me in my life, may easily give credit to what I say.""
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891, 256.Title/Paratext] "It is here printed from [...]" J. Bradshaw, 1891.
"It is here printed from a copy in the Mitford MSS., now in the British Museum (32, 561, Add. MSS.). Mitford has entered it in two
places in his volume of MSS.; at p. 74 with the note,—"N.B. in
Gray's writing"; and at p. 182, "Not in Gray's writing." The
former version, therefore, I have followed.
It was first printed by Mr. Gosse (1884) "from a copy in
the handwriting of Alexander Dyce, lately found slipped into a book at South
Kensington, and made by him when the original MS. was sold in 1854."
Each of the three copies differs slightly from the others. In
line 1 there is a comma after "Here" in the Dyce copy; and it is
"free from pain," in Mitford No. 2, p. 182. In line 8 in the Dyce
copy it is "Now" instead of "Here"; and in Mitford No. 2
it is "the Night of Death." Also in the Mitford copies almost every
substantive begins with a capital letter."
Works cited
- The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891.
Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been supplied. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.