[Elegiac Verses]
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[Elegiac Verses]
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Title/Paratext] "[Prose translation by J. R. [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"[Prose translation by J. R. Hendrickson:]
"Elegiac Verses"
Gray's letter (T & W no. 78) mixes English and Latin in the same sentence. The sentence begins, 'Secondly, how we passed the famous plains
. . .', and then continues with the Latin verse, as follows:
. . . where the water of the Trebia cuts through the grey-green willows and the fields ennobled by Roman disasters. The stream seemed even yet to run red with blood from the ancient slaughter and to sigh in lamentation as it flowed. The cavalry squadron of Moors, black bands of horsemen, seemed still to exult in triumph, and the trampled bank to resound with the flight of the sons of Ausonia."
Works cited
- The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966.
Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Initial letters of sentences have been capitalized, all accents have been removed. The editor would like to express his gratitude to library staff at Pembroke College, Cambridge, at the British Library, and at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their invaluable assistance.