[Verse Fragments]
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[Verse Fragments]
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Metrical foot type: iambic (-+)
Metrical foot number: tetrameter (4 feet), pentameter (5 feet)
Notation symbols: | (foot boundary), || (caesura), / (metrical line boundary), + (metrically prominent), - (metrically non-prominent)
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Title/Paratext] "When Mason copied these lines [...]" H.W. Starr/J.R. Hendrickson, 1966.
"When Mason copied these lines into CB, it seems probable that he regarded them (with the possible exception of 'tis Ridicule ...', which he enclosed in quotation marks) as by Gray [...]. That Mason intended to imply that the verse was by Gray is all the more likely since he prefaced a later extract from the Pocket-book of 1754 (CB, iii. 1111) with the statement: 'It is not clear whether this is his [Gray's] or an extract from some Book.'"
The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek. Edited by Herbert W. Starr and J. R. Hendrickson. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1966, 274.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.
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.