Can storied urn or animated bust

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry sooth the dull cold ear of Death?

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd, Or wak'd to extasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear :
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,
Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of Mercy on mankind,

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial still erected nigh,

With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd;
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply;
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind?

On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires ;
Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires.

For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,
Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
" Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.
"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove;
Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,

Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

"One morn I miss'd him on the 'custom'd hill,
Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;
Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he ;

"The next with dirges due in sad array

Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne.

Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,
Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."

THE EPIΤΑΡΗ.

HERE rests his head upon the lap of Earth,
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompence as largely send :
He gave to Mis'ry all he had-a tear,

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd)—a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

(There they alike in trembling hope repose,) The bosom of his Father and his God.

IMITATIONS, VARIATIONS,

AND

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

In the foregoing Edition the text of all those pieces, which the Author published in his life-time, is given exactly as he left it in the London and Glasgow editions; and the few added pieces are printed verbatim from his corrected manuscripts. I have also inserted all his explanatory notes at the bottom of their respective pages; but those which only pointed out imitative expressions have been reserved for these concluding pages, because many of them appeared to me not very material, and therefore would have crowded the text as unnecessarily as my own annotations. - W. M.

ODE I.

The original manuscript title, which Mr. Gray gave to this Ode, was NOONTIDE; probably he then meant to write two more, descriptive of Morning and Evening. His unfinished Ode (vide p. 192 of the Memoirs) opens with a fine description of the former; and his Elegy was as beautiful a picture of the latter, which perhaps he might, at that time, have meditated upon for the exordium of an ode; but this is only conjecture. It may, however, be remarked, that these three capital descriptions abound with ideas which affect the ear more than the eye; and therefore go beyond the powers of picturesque imitation.

1. O'er-canopies the glade. Stanza ii. l. 4.

IMITATION.
a bank

O'er-canopied with luscious woodbine. G.

Shaks. Mids. Night's Dream.

2. How low, how little are the proud,

How indigent the great.

VARIATION.

Stanza ii. l. 9, 10.

How low, how indigent the proud;

How little are the great.

Thus it stood in Dodsley's Miscellany, where it was first published. The Author corrected it on account of the point of little and great. It certainly had too much the appearance of a concetto, though it expressed his meaning better than the present reading.

3. And float amid the liquid noon.

IMITATION.

Stanza iii. l. 7.

Nare per æstatem liquidam. Virg. Georg. lib. iv.

4. Quick-glancing to the sun. Stanza iii. 1. 10.

IMITATION.

sporting with quick glance,

Shew to the sun their wav'd coats dropt with gold.

Milton's Par. Lost, b. vii. G.

5. To Contemplation's sober eye. Stanza iv. l. 1.

IMITATION.

While insects from the threshold preach, &c.

M. GREEN in the Grotto.

Dodsley's Misc. vol. v. p. 161. G.

ODE II.

1. This little piece, in which comic humour is so happily blended with lyrical fancy, was written in point of time some years later than the first, third, and fourth Odes. See Memoirs, p. 156; but as the Author had printed it here in his own edition, I have not changed it. Mr. Walpole, since the death of Mr. Gray, has placed the China vase in question on a pedestal at Strawberry-hill, with the first four lines of the Ode for its inscription.

'Twas on this vase's lofty side, &c.

2. Two angel forms were seen to glide. Stanza iii. l. 2.

VARIATION.

Two beauteous forms. First edition in Dodsley's Misc.

ODE III.

1. This was the first English production of Mr. Gray which appeared in print It was published in folio by Dodsley in 1747; about the same time, at Mr. Walpole's request, Mr. Gray sat for his picture to Echart, in which, on a paper which he held in his hand, Mr. Walpole wrote the title of this Ode, and to intimate his own high and just opinion of it, as a first production, added this line of Lucan by way of motto

Nec licuit populis parvum te, Nile, videre. - Phars. lib. x. 1. 296. 2. And, redolent of joy and youth. Stanza ii. 1. 9.

IMITATION.

And bees their honey redolent of spring.
Dryden's Fable on the Pythag. System. G.

3. And hard Unkindness' alter'd eye. Stanza viii. l. 6.

The elision here is ungraceful and hurts this otherwise beautiful line: one of the same kind in the second line of the first Ode makes the same blemish; but I think they are the only two to be found in this correct writer; and I mention them here that succeeding poets may not look upon them as authorities. The judicious reader will not suppose that I would condemn all elisions of the genitive case, by this stricture on those which are terminated by rough consonants. Many there are which the ear readily admits, and which use has made familiar to it.

4. And moody Madness laughing wild. Stanza viii. 1. 9.

IMITATION.

Madness laughing in her ireful mood.

+

Dryden's Palamon and Arcite. G.