ODES. I. ON THE SPRING. ༦ [The original manuscript title given by Gray to this Ode, was 'Noontide.' It appeared for the first time in Dodsley's Collection, vol. ii. p. 271, under the title of Ode.' See Meleager's Ode to Spring, and Jones. Comm. Poes. Asiatica. p. 411. This Ode is formed on Horace's Ode ad Sestium, i. iv. Translated into Latin in Musæ Etonens. Vol. ii. p. 60.] Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, NOTES-Ver. 1. "The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd Hours." Milton. Comus, v. 984. W. Thoms. Spring, 1007. V. 2. So Homer. Hymn. ad Vener. ii. 5: τὴν δὲ χρυσάμπυκες ὥραι Δέξαντ' ἀσπασίως περὶ δ' ἄμβροτα εἵματα ἔσσαν. The Hours also are joined with Venus in the Hymn. ad Apollin. v. 194. And Hesiod places them in her train: ἄμφι δὲ τήνγε “Ωραι καλλίκομοι στέφον ἄνθεσιν εἰαρινοῖσι. Erg. ver. 75. V. 3. "At that soft season when descending showers Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers." Pope. Temple of Fame, b. i. v. 1. W.-In some editions, "expected" is printed for "expecting." "The flowers that in its womb expecting lie." Dryden. Astræa Redux. Rogers, V. 4. Apuleius. Nuptiis Cupid. et Psyc. vi. p. 427, ed. Oudendorp: "Hora, rosis, et cæteris floribus purpurabant The Attic warbler pours her throat, The untaught harmony of spring: Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech Beside some water's rushy brink With me the Muse shall sit, and think 5 10 15 omnia.' "" Also in the Pervigil. Vener. v. 13: "Ipsa gemmis purpurantem pingit annum floribus." Pope has the same expression in his Past. i. 28: "And lavish Nature paints the purple year." "Gales that wake the purple year." Mallet. Zephyr. V. 5. Martial. Epig. i. 54: "Sic ubi multisona fervet sacer Atthide lucus." Also in the Epitaphium Athenaidos apud Fabrettum, p. 702: "Cum te, nate, fleo, planctus dabit Attica Aedon. And "Attica volucris." Propert. II. xvi. 6,Ovid. Halieut. v. 110: "Attica avis vernâ sub tempestate queratus." Add Senecæ Herc. Et. v. 200. And Milton. Par. R. iv. 245: "The Attic bird trills her thick-warbled notes." The expression "pours her throat" is from Pope. Essay on Man, iii. 33: "Is it for thee the linnet pours her "Indocilique loquax throat?" So Ovid. Trist. iii. 12. 8. gutture vernat avis." V. 7 The symphony of Spring." -"The hollow Cuckoo sings Thoms. Spring. Luke. V. 10. -"Fresh gales and gentle airs v. Comus. v. 989. and P. L. iv. 327. "Cool Zephyr." Luke. V. 12. Milton. Par. L. iv. 246: "The unpierc'd shade Whisper'd it to the woods." Par. L. viii. 515. (At ease reclin❜d in rustic state) Still is the toiling hand of Care; Yet, hark, how thro' the peopled air Var. V. 19. "How low, how indigent the proud, 20 So these lines appeared in Dodsley. The variation, as Mason informs us, was subsequently made to avoid the point "little and great." imbrown'd the noontide bowers." "And breathes a browner horror o'er the woods," Pope. Eloisa, 170. W.-Thomson. Cast. of Ind. i. 38: " Or Autumn's varied shades imbrown the walls." V. 13. "A bank o'ercanopied with luscious woodbine." Mids. N. Dr. act ii. sc. 2. Gray. "The beech shall yield a cool safe canopy." Fletcher. Purpl. Is. i. v. 30. And T. Warton's note on Milton's Comus, v. 543. V. 15. "The rushy-fringed bank." Comus. Luke. V. 22. iii. 6. W. ii. 86: Patula pecus omne sub ulmo est." Pers. Sat. - But Gray seems to have imitated Pope. Past. "The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove: " "Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido Rivumque fessus quærit." Hor. lib. III. Od. xxix. 21. V. 23. Thomson. Autumn, 836: "Warn'd of approaching winter, gather'd, play the swallow-people." And Walton. Complete Angler, p. 260: "Now the wing'd people of the sky shall sing." Add Beaumont. Psyche, st. lxxxviii. p. 46: Every tree empeopled was with birds of softest throats." so Alciphr. Ep. p. 341. Shuov oλov opvεwv. and Max. Tyr. See Reiske's note, p. 82. 66 The busy murmur glows! And float amid the liquid noon: To Contemplation's sober eye And they that creep, and they that fly, Shall end where they began. Alike the Busy and the Gay In Fortune's varying colors drest: 25 30 35 V. 24. Thus Milton. Par. R. iv. 248: "The sound of bees' industrious murmur." Wakefield quotes Thomson. Spr. 506: "Thro' the soft air the busy nations fly." And, 649: "But restless hurry thro' the busy air." Compare also Pope. T. of Fame, 294. V. 25. "Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold." Pope. Rape of the Lock, ii. 59. W. This expression may have been suggested by a line in Green's Hermitage, quoted in Gray's Letter to Walpole: (see note at ver. 31.) "From maggot-youth thro' change of state They feel, like us, the turns of fate." V. 26. See Milton, as quoted by Wakefield: Il Pen. 142, Lycid. 140, Sams. Ag. 1066. V. 27. "Nare per æstatem liquidam," Georg. iv. 59. Gray. To which, add Georg. i. 404; and Æn. v. 525; x. 272. "There suck the liquid air." Milton. Comus, v. 980. V. 30. "Sporting with quick glance, shew to the sun their wav'd coats dropp'd with gold," Par. L. vii. 410. Gray. - See also Pope, Hom. Il. ii. 557; and Essay on Man, iii. 55. V. 31. "While insects from the threshold preach," Green, in the Grotto. Dodsley, Misc. v. p. 161. Gray.-Gray, in a Brush'd by the hand of rough Mischance, They leave, in dust to rest. Methinks I hear, in accents low, Poor moralist! and what art thou? Thy joys no glittering female meets, No painted plumage to display: 40 45 50 letter to H. Walpole, says: (see Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 395.) "I send you a bit of a thing for two reasons; first, because it is one of your favorite's, Mr. M. Green; and next, because I would do justice: the thought on which my second Ode turns, (The Ode to Spring, afterwards placed first, by Gray,) is manifestly stole from thence. 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." Then follows the quotation from Green's Grotto. Wakefield seems to have discovered the original of this stanza in some lines in Thomson. Summer, 342. V. 37. The varied colours run, ," Thoms. Spring. Luke. V. 47. "From branch to branch the smaller birds with song Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings." Par. L. vii. 438. W. And so Thomson. Spring, 582; Virg. Georg. iii. 243; Æn. iv. 525; Claudian, xv. 3. "Pictisque plumis." Phædri Fab. iii. v. 18. V. 49. Πάνθ ̓ ἅλιον ἄμμι δεδύκειν. Theocrit. Idyll. i. 102. W. Alexis ap. Stobæum. lib. exv.: *Hôn vào ô Bios buòs 'Еоnéрav йyεl. Plato has the same metaphorical expression : |