"And thou, who mindful of th' unhonored dead To linger in the gloomy walks of Fate; "Hark! how the sacred Calm that broods around, "No more with reason and thyself at strife, Pursue the silent tenor of thy doom." 73. Madding. Gray's use of this form of the word, no doubt, has had much to do with its acceptance. 81. Spelt by the unlettered Muse. Engraved by an uneducated person. 92. E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. Gray here quotes from Petrarch: "Ch'i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco, Fredda una lingua, e due begli occhi chiusi (These, my sweet fair, so warns prophetic thought, 95. Chance. Perchance. 100. To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. After this verse the following stanza occurs in the original manuscript: "Him have we seen the greenwood side along, Lawn. Here, an open space in the wood. "Together both, ere the high lawns appeared Milton uses 105-112. Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, etc. These two stanzas are engraved on a monument to Gray in Stoke Park near the church-yard. 116. Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn. After this verse Gray originally inserted the following stanza: "There scattered oft, the earliest of the year, By hands unseen, are showers of violets found; 119. Science. Knowledge in general. ODE ON THE SPRING The "Ode on the Spring" was written at Stoke in June, 1742, but was not published until 1748, when it appeared under the title "Ode," in Dodsley's "Collection of Poems by Several Hands." 1. Hours. of the seasons. In classical mythology, the Hora; goddesses "The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours, Thither all their bounties bring.” - MILTON, Comus, 11. 986-987. 5. Attic warbler. The nightingale; it is common in the province of Attica, eastern Greece. "Where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long." - MILTON, Paradise Regained, Bk. IV, 11. 245–246. ""Tis the merry nightingale That crowds and hurries and precipitates With fast, thick warble his delicious notes." COLERIDGE, The Nightingale, Il. 43–45. 14. O'er-canopies the glade. Gray quotes from Shakespeare in connection with this line: "A bank O'ercanopied with luscious woodbine." - Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, Sc. I, 11. 249, 251. 16. Muse. One of the nine goddesses who presided over poetry, the arts and sciences. 20. Indigent. Destitute, needy. 27. And float amid the liquid noon. Gray here quotes from Virgil: "Sporting with quick glance Shew to the sun their waved coats drop'd with gold." - Paradise Lost, Bk. VII, 11. 405–406 31-50. To Contemplation's sober eye, etc. Gray, in a letter to Walpole, admitted that he borrowed these ideas from Green: “I send,” he wrote, “a bit of a thing for two reasons; first, because it is one of your favorites, Mr. M. Green; and next, because I would do justice. The thought on which my second ode [the "Ode on the Spring" was the second of Gray's odes in Dodsley's "Collection"] turns is manifestly stole from hence; not that I knew it at the time, but having seen this many years before, to be sure it imprinted itself on my memory, and forgetting the author, I took it for my own." The subject was the "Queen's Hermitage." A part of the poem was then quoted, including the following lines: "The thinking sculpture helps to raise Destroy more slow life's frail machine; Some born to creep have liv'd to fly And chang'd earth's cells for dwellings high: And some that did their six wings keep, They politics, like ours profess; Some strain on foot huge loads to bring, Are sick and well, have war and peace; And broke with age in half a day, Yield to successors, and away." 44. A solitary fly. Gray early formed the habit of spending much of his time alone. 49. Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone. Gray was but twenty-five when he wrote this poem. ODE ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE The "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College was written at Stoke in August, 1742, but did not appear in print until 1747. It was the first of Gray's English pieces to be published. The motto, which translated, reads, "Because I am a man, a sufficient excuse for being miserable," is from Menander's "Incert. Fragment," 1. 382. 1. Antique. Ancient; not in the sense of 'oldfashioned." 4. Henry's holy shade. "King Henry the Sixth, Founder of the College." (Author's note). Although never canonized, Henry the Sixth was regarded as a saint. 6. Windsor's heights. The site of Windsor Castle, the royal palace. 9. Hoary Thames. being old. Poets frequently refer to rivers as "But Thame was stronger and of better stay; Yet seem'd full aged by his outward sight With head all hoary and his beard all gray, Deawed with silver drops that trickled downe alway." "Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow." "In that blest moment from his oozy bed Old father Thames advanced his rev'rend head." - POPE, Windsor Forest, 11. 329-330. 14. A stranger yet to pain. Gray had in mind the happy school days spent with his bosom friend, Richard West, |