the forces of the Young Pretender (grandson of James II), who claimed the throne of Great Britain. The ode may commemorate the English who fell in all these engagements. (220) ODE TO EVENING. 1. If: the conclusion begins in 1. 15. aught of oaten stop: i. e., anything played upon the shepherd's oaten pipe, with its stops or vent-holes. (221) 7. brede-braid, embroidery. 19-12. Cf. Macbeth, III. ii. 40-43: ere the bat hath flown His cloistered flight, ere to black Hecate's summons (222) 41. wont is wont to do. ¶ 47, 48. A figurative expression of the fact that the twilight in winter is short, evening quickly giving place to night. 50. Collins apparently meant to suggest that evening is a favorable time for writing poetry receiving friends and studying; its connection with health is not obvious-indeed the reading in 1746 was "smiling Peace." (222) THE PASSIONS. ¶ 11. myrtles: the myrtle was associated with Apollo and the Muses. 44 (223) 26. sounds: the construction is peculiar; "sounds" is either in apposition with 'measures" or is governed by "with" understood. 35. The suggestion seems to be that Hope needs to be sustained by some response from without. ¶36. her sweetest theme: presumably, love; the poem contains three allusions to love, and perhaps this was the reason why Collins did not give the passion more prominence in any one place. ¶43. denouncing= announcing. (224) 75. oak-crowned sisters: wood-nymphs, attendant on Diana, their "chaste-eyed queen." ¶86. Tempe's vale: a vale in Thessaly, Greece, famous for its beauty. ¶91. her: Mirth's. 192. he: Love. (225) 114. Cecilia's: St. Cecilia was the reputed inventor of the organ. (225) AN ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND. This ode was not published until 1788, when it was printed in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Dr. Alexander Carlyle, a Scotch clergyman, in a letter to a member of the society, said: "The manuscript is in Mr. Collins's handwriting, and fell into my hands among the papers of a friend of mine and Mr. John Home's, who died as long ago as the year 1754. Soon after I found the poem, I showed it to Mr. Home, who told me that it had been addressed to him by Mr. Collins, on his leaving London in the year 1749; that it was hastily composed and incorrect; but that he would one day find leisure to look it over with care. Mr. Collins and Mr. Home had been made acquainted by Mr. John Barrow (the 'cordial youth' mentioned in the first stanza). I thought no more of the poem till a few years ago, when, on reading Dr. Johnson's Life of Collins, I conjectured that it might be the very copy of verses which he mentions, which he says was so much prized by some of his friends, and for the loss of which he expresses regret. I sought for it among my papers; and, perceiving that a stanza and a half were wanting, I made the most diligent search I could for them, but in vain. Whether or not this great chasm was in the poem when it first came into my hands, is more than I can remember at this distance of time." A few weeks after the publication of the poem in the Transactions, there came out, in London, what purported to be a perfect copy of the ode as revised by Collins; in the preface the editor said, "A gentleman who, for the present, chooses not to publish his name, discovered last summer the following admirable ode among some old papers, in the concealed drawers of a bureau, left him, among other articles, by a relation." Although challenged by The English Review and The Monthly Review, the editor never revealed his name or his evidence; but his version has usually been adopted, chiefly, it would seem, because of the natural desire of editors and publishers to print a complete text. It is here rejected as not genuine (for the reasons see the Athenaeum Press edition of Collins), but its readings are given in the notes. Collins doubtless learned much from Home himself about Scotch superstitions, but he seems also to have read Martin's Description of the Western Islands of Scotland; see the Athenaeum Press edition of Collins for several close parallels. (225) 1. H- -: John Home, a Scotch clergyman; he came to London in 1749, with the tragedy of Agis, which Garrick refused. ¶4. This prophecy was fulfilled a few years later by the success of Home's tragedy, Douglas. (226) 13. whose: anon. ed., "where." ¶ 16. the: anon. ed., "thy." ¶ 17. own thy genial land: i. e., acknowledge it as their country. ¶ 18. Doric simple, natural; cf. l. 33. 23. swart tribes: Brownies. bowl: anon. ed., "bowls." ¶ 26. herd-herdsman. ¶ 39. had=would have. ¶41. runic bards: poets of the north lands, who wrote their poems in runes, the early alphabet of the northern peoples of Europe. 42. uncouth-strange, of unusual shape (O.E. "un," and "cuo," known). vest-vestment, garment. (227) 48. shiel: “A kind of hut, built for a summer habitation to the herdsmen, when the cattle are sent to graze in distant pastures."-Note in Transactions edition. ¶ 51. bony: anon. ed., "brawny." ¶55. Anon. ed., "with Fate's fell spear." ¶56. Uist's: North and South Uist are islands in the Hebrides, near Sky. forests: anon. ed., "forest." ¶59. strath: a valley with a river running through it. ¶ 62. Anon. ed., “destined glance." ¶68. heartless-dismayed. 170-94. Anon. ed.: To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, In the first year of the first George's reign, They mourned in air, fell, fell Rebellion slain! Saw at sad Falkirk all their hopes near crowned, Pale, red Culloden, where these hopes were drowned! One William saved us from a tyrant's stroke; He, for a sceptre, gained heroic fame; But thou, more glorious, Slavery's chain hast broke, These, too, thou'lt sing! for well thy magic Muse Can to the topmost heav'n of grandeur soar! Or stoop to wail the swain that is no more! Ah, homely swains! your homeward steps ne'er lose; Dancing in mirky night, o'er fen and lake, He glows, to draw you downward to your death, In his bewitched, low, marshy willow brake! (228) 107. Anon. ed., "spot where hums the sedgy weed." 111. bank: anon. ed., "banks." 121-24. Cf. Gray's "Elegy," ll. 21-24 (p. 239). ¶125-32. Cf. Ovid's Metamorphoses, xi. 654-58: Luridus, exsangui similis, sine vestibus ullis, "Ghastly, like a bloodless corpse, without any clothing, he stood before the couch of his miserable wife. The man's beard appears wet, and a heavy stream flows from his dripping hair. Then, leaning over the couch, with tears poured over his face, he speaks thus." ¶ 127. dropping: anon. ed., "drooping." ¶135. hapless: anon. ed., "helpless." ¶ 137. kelpie: a water-spirit. (229) 138. style: anon. ed., "skill." ¶150. midnight's: anon. ed., "midnight.” ¶ 164. sainted: anon. ed., "scented." ¶ 173. gentle: i. e., educated, cultivated, belonging to a gentleman. (230) 177. The anon. ed. supplies, "Flew to those fairy climes his fancy sheen," and in the next line changes the comma after "hour" to a semi-colon. ¶ 178. Sisters: the witches in Macbeth. ¶ 181-83. See Macbeth, IV. i. ¶ 186. colours: anon. ed., "colour." ¶ 19298. Gerusalemme Liberata ("Jerusalem Delivered"), by the Italian poet Tasso (1544-95), was "done into English heroical verse" by Edward Fairfax in 1600; the marvels referred to are described in Canto XIII, st. 41-43, 46. ¶202. Anon. ed., "Hence, at each picture, vivid life starts here!" ¶204. num'rous: anon. ed., "murm'ring," ¶207. friths: anon. ed., "splendid friths." (231) 213. Anon. ed., "Or o'er your mountains creep, in awful gloom." ¶215. Ben Jonson journeyed afoot to Scotland, in 1618-19, to visit his friend, the poet William Drummond, at his estate of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh; the Teviot, or Tiviot (l. 216), and the Yarrow (1. 217) are not far away. shade: anon. ed., "classic shade." ¶216. Tiviot's dale each: anon. ed., "Tiviotdale each lyric flow'r." ¶217. banks: anon. ed., "banks, where Willy 's laid." ¶219. Lothian's plains: the county of Lothian, in which Edinburgh is situated. ¶ 220. Anon. ed., "Where'er Home dwells, on hill or lowly moor." CONTEMPORARY CRITICISM "Have you seen the works of two young authors, a Mr. Warton and Mr. Collins, both writers of odes? It is odd enough, but each is the half of a considerable man, and one the counterpart of the other. The first has but little invention, very poetical choice of expression, and a good ear; the second, a fine fancy, modelled upon the antique, a bad ear, great variety of words and images, with no choice at all. They both deserve to last some years, but will not."-Gray, in a letter to Wharton, December 27, 1746. "If a luxuriance of imagination, a wild sublimity of fancy, and a felicity of expression so extraordinary that it might be supposed to be suggested by some superior power rather than to be the effect of human judgment or capacity, if these are allowed to constitute the excellence of lyric poetry, the author of the Odes Descriptive and Allegorical will indisputably bear away the palm from all his competitors in that province of the Muse."-The Monthly Review, January, 1764. "He loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters; he delighted to rove through the meanders of enchantment, to gaze on the magnificence of golden palaces, to repose by the water-falls of Elysian gardens. This was, however, the character rather of his inclination than his genius; the grandeur of wildness and the novelty of extravagance were always desired by him, but not always attained. Yet, as diligence is never wholly lost, if his efforts sometimes caused harshness and obscurity, they likewise produced in happier moments sublimity and splendor. This idea which he had formed of excellence led him to oriental fictions and allegorical imagery. and perhaps, while he was intent upon description, he did not sufficiently cultivate sentiment. . . . . His diction was often harsh, unskilfully labored, and injudiciously selected. He affected the obsolete when it was not worthy of revival; and he puts his words out of the common order, seeming to think, with some later candidates for fame, that not to write prose is certainly to write poetry. His lines commonly are of slow motion, clogged and impeded with clusters of consonants. As men are often esteemed who cannot be loved, so the poetry of Collins may sometimes extort praise when it gives little pleasure."-Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the English Poets (1779-81). "Let Dr. Johnson, with all his erudition, produce me another lyric ode equal to Collins's on the 'Passions'; indeed the frequent public recitals of this last-mentioned poem are a mark of its universally acknowledged excellence."-"Philo-Lyrister," in The Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1782. "His four eclogues are mere trash; yet a part of his odes will, notwithstanding, command the admiration of mankind as long as poetical genius or poetical taste shall remain in the world."-"H.," in The Gentleman's Magazine, January, 1782. "The favored child of Poesy, whose productions in every line bear the most indubitable stamp of that divine enthusiasm which characterizes genius."-"X.," in The European Magazine. August, 1785. THOMAS GRAY "I by no means pretend to inspiration, but yet I affirm that the faculty in question [that of writing poetry] 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."-Gray, in a letter to Wharton, June 18, 1758. "The language of the age is never the language of poetry, except among the French, whose verse, where the thought or image does not support it, differs in nothing from prose. Our poetry, on the contrary, has a language peculiar to itself, to which almost every one that has written has added something by enriching it with foreign idioms and derivatives, nay, sometimes words of their own composition or invention."-Letter to West, April, 1742. "Extreme conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicuous, and musical, is one of the grand beauties of lyric poetry. This I have always aimed at, and never could attain; the necessity of rhyming is one great obstacle to it."—Letter to Mason, January 13, 1758. "The true lyric style, with all its flights of fancy, ornaments, and heightening of expression, and harmony of sound, is in its nature superior to every other style; which is just the cause why it could not be borne in a work of great length, no more than the eye could bear to see all this scene that we constantly gaze upon-the verdure of the fields and woods, the azure of the sea and skies-turned into one dazzling expanse of gems." -Letter to Mason, December, 1756. Notes signed "G." are by Gray. (231) ODE ON THE SPRING. 1. rosy-bosomed Hours: cf. Milton's Comus, 1. 986, "The Graces and the rosy-bosomed Hours," and Homer's frequent epithet "rosy-fingered," applied to the dawn. ¶ 2-4. In classic mythology the Hours are represented as accompanying Venus, and, since they mark the flight of time, as bringing the changes of the season. 13. expecting-awaiting. ¶4. the purple year: cf. note on Pope's "Spring," 1. 28 (p. 444). 15. The Attic warbler: the nightingale. The nightingale is so called because it was very common in Attica, and was often referred to in Greek literature and legend. pours her throat: cf. Pope, "An Essay on Man," III. 33, "Is it for thee the linnet pours his throat?" (232) 27. Gray compares Virgil, Georgics, iv. 59, "Nare per aestatem liquidam," "To swim through the liquid summer." 29, 30. Gray compares Paradise Lost, VII. 405, 406: sporting with quick glance, Show to the sun their waved coats dropt with gold. (232) ODE ON A DISTANT Prospect of Eton COLLEGE. The gloom of the poem was due in part to personal circumstances: of Gray's three intimate friends, all Eton boys, one (West) had just died, and the other two (Walpole and Ashton) were estranged from him. 13. Science: Knowledge, Learning. 4. Henry's holy shade: Eton College was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, who had a great reputation for piety. (233) 5. ye: the spires and towers of Windsor Castle. ¶6. Windsor's heights: Windsor Castle is on the other bank of the Thames, nearly opposite Eton College. ¶ 28. succeed: succeed us "old boys." ¶32. murm'ring labours ply: study their lessons aloud. ¶ 33. 'Gainst graver hours: in preparation for the hours of recitation in the school-room. sweeten liberty: i. e., by contrast. 34. To (235) 79. Gray compares Dryden's "Palamon and Arcite," II. 582: And Madness laughing in his ireful mood." ¶81. years beneath: the years of later life. ¶83. family of Death: diseases which accompany death. 89. Cf. "Elegy Written in a Country ChurchYard," ll. 51, 52 (p. 240). (235) HYMN TO ADVERSITY. Gray prefixed the following lines from Æschylus, Agamemnon, 173, 176-78: "Zeus Ζήνα . Τὸν φρονεῖν βροτοὺς ὁδώ- Θέντα κυρίως ἔχειν. who has guided mortals to wisdom and established knowledge by suffering to hold sure." 39 17. purple tyrants: cf. Horace, Odes, I. xxxv. 12, "Purpurei metuunt tyranni," "The purple tyrants fear"; "purple" refers to the purple robes worn by kings. ¶8. pangs unfelt before: cf. Paradise Lost, II. 703, "Strange horror seize thee and pangs unfelt before." (236) 16. Cf. the Eneid, i. 630: "Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco," "Not ignorant of evil, I learn to succor the wretched."¶20. leisure to be good: cf. John Oldham (1653–83), “A Satire against Virtue," l. 119, "I have not yet the leisure to be good." ¶ 25-29. Cf. Milton's "Il Penseroso," 11. 35-44. ¶ 28. leaden: "Leaden-colored eye-sockets betoken melancholy, or excess of thoughtfulness."-Masson. May there not also be a suggestion of heaviness? ¶35. Gorgon terrors: the Gorgons were terrible maidens of Greek mythology, having brazen claws and enormous teeth and girded with serpents; one of them, Medusa, had serpents instead of hair, and the sight of her turned the beholder to stone. ¶36. the vengeful band: the Furies. 137. impious: Gray apparently used the word in its Latin sense of "lacking in due reverence for parents," with special reference to Orestes, who was pursued by the Furies because he killed his mother, Clytemnestra. ¶ 45, 46. See prefatory note on the preceding poem. ¶ 48. know myself a man: realize my fellowship with the human race through faults and suffering. (237) SONNET ON THE DEATH OF RICHARD WEST. West was the dearest of Gray's early friends; they had been intimate at Eton, and they exchanged letters and poems almost to the day of West's death, on June 1, 1742; this sonnet was written in the following August. 13. amorous descant: cf. Paradise Lost, IV. 602, 603: all but the wakeful nightingale. She all night long her amorous descant sung. A descant is a song with various modulations. ¶5. other notes: the verses which West was accustomed to send him, or perhaps merely the tones of his friend's voice. (237) ODE ON The Death of a FAVOURITE CAT. The cat belonged to Gray's friend, Horace Walpole, with whom he was now reconciled. ¶ 16. Tyrian hue: see note on Pope's "Windsor Forest," l. 68 (p. 445). (238) 31. Eight times: an allusion to the popular saying that a cat has nine lives. ¶ 34. dolphin: an allusion to the legend that Arion, the famous Greek musician, when forced to leap overboard, was carried ashore on the back of a dolphin which had been charmed by his music. 35. cruel Tom nor Susan: the servants, jealous of the favorite cat. (238) ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. Mason, Gray's friend, says, in his Memoirs of Gray (1775), that he is "inclined to believe" that the poem was begun in 1742, when Gray was living at Stoke Poges; it may have been suggested by the death of the poet's uncle in that year. It is possible, however, that the elegy was not begun until 1746; the poet was working on it in that year, anyway, as appears from a letter to Wharton. The death of his aunt, in 1749, probably caused Gray to resume the poem, which was finished the next year. Three autograph manuscripts of the poem are extant, and contain interesting variations. The editions printed during Gray's lifetime also vary from one another and from the manuscripts; the edition of 1768 is followed here, while some of the variant readings are given in the notes. The immediate popularity of the elegy appears from Gray's note appended to the Pembroke manuscript: "Publish'd in Febry: 1751, by Dodsley; & went thro four Editions, in two months; and afterwards a fifth, 6th, 7th, & 8th, 9th & 10th & 11th. Printed |