How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! Let not ambition mock their useful toil, [The thoughtless1 world to majesty may bow, The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Nor you, ye proud! impute to these2 the fault, Can storied3 urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unrol; 1 The thoughtless, &c.-This and the other stanzas enclosed in brackets are taken from the early editions, or from the MS. left by Gray. They are much too beautiful to be either lost or banished, and the present editor has therefore ventured to find a place for them. 2 Impute to these, &c.-i. e. do not suppose that these poor men do not deserve "trophies" as well as you. 3 Storied--embossed with figures, or bearing an inscription relating to the story or history of the deceased. Provoke-from the Latin provoco, I challenge or call forth; here, call back again to life. Rich with, &c.-containing the riches which time, like a conqueror, has gathered together. A noble expression! 1 Chill penury repressed their noble rage,1 Full many a gem of purest ray serene2 The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast, The applause of listening senates to command, And read their history in a nation's eyes, Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ;- The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, With incense kindled at the muse's flame. Rage-ardour, enthusiasm. This use of the word was once common. Thus Pope : 2 "So just thy skill, so regular my rage." Purest ray serene-" purest" and "serene" seem to be nearly identical in meaning, and it is not easy to see the propriety of the latter word unless it be taken as an adverb to qualify, "bear." The meaning would then be that the ocean kept these pearls serenely, (i. e. quietly,) so that no one knew anything about them. 3 Many a flower, &c.-Every word here seems the choicest possible, and the conception, so beautiful in itself, thus appears invested with a double charm. 4 Read their history, &c.-Remarkable for the fulness of meaning condensed into a few words. in 5 The struggling pangs, &c.-It has been justly observed that this stanza rather weakens than increases the interest excited by the last, and comes laggingly after that sonorous couplet, "Forbade to wade, &c.," which certainly ought to have closed the passage. The sense is-Their lot forbade their learning those arts by which men rise, as it is called, in the world, and which involve the abandonment of truth and industry, as well as the mean flattery of the great. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife- They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. [Hark! how the sacred calm that breathes around Yet even these bones from insult to protect, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deckt, Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse, For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned, Far from, &c.-i. e. living far from the influence of the "ignoble strife," their wishes never strayed towards it. The "far from" has no grammatical connection with "stray." 2 Yet even, &c.--The direct train of thought, which has been long interrupted, is here resumed, from the stanza beginning, "Nor you, ye proud," and may be thus connected:-Though these poor people have no monuments in cathedrals, yet even they love to have some memorial, however frail, raised near their bones, to bespeak the sympathy of passers by. 3 Still-always, continually; as if put for, "you will constantly find." A somewhat rare use of the word, if this be indeed its meaning here, which is not certain. 4 For, &c.-This stanza is connected with the last but one; the last being in parenthesis. 5 Pious drops-affectionate tears; taken in the sense of the Latin pius, dutiful to relations. 6 Even in our ashes, &c.-even in the grave, that desire for affectionate sympathy which we evinced when alive, is expressed by the "frail memorial still erected nigh." Chaucer writes: "Yet in our ashen cold is fire y-reken." (smoking.) For thee,1 who, mindful of the unhonoured dead, Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love. 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 :- ["There scattered3 oft, the earliest of the year, For thee, &c.-i. e. as to thee. The remainder of the poem refers to the character and circumstances of the author, who, by reflecting on the condition and fate of others, is naturally reminded of his own. 2 Him have we seen, &c.-This stanza, the "Doric delicacy" of which is praised by Mason, completes the poet's day, by supplying the evening. It is taken from Gray's first MS. 3 There scattered, &c.-This exquisite stanza was printed in the earlier editions, but afterwards omitted by the author, "because he thought it was too long a parenthesis in this place." The judgment is perhaps just, but it is re-admitted here, notwithstanding, for the reason given in Note 1, p. 62. F The redbreast loves to build and warble there, THE EPITAPH. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth Large was his bounty,2 and his soul sincere ;3 He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend.4 No further 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. Gray. TO A WATER-FOWL. WHITHER, midst falling dew,6 While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, 1 Fair science, &c.-i. e. though he loved science, yet he was melancholy: an affirmation which has little force. The "and" seems to be put for "but." 2 Bounty--The word usually refers to actual generosity, but here it seems to mean generosity of heart. 3 Sincere-open, and capable of friendship. 4 Friend-probably the poet refers to his friend, Mason. 5 There in their "dread abode," the bosom, i. e. the mercy of God, to which he refers both his merits and his frailties. These notes may properly conclude with Dr. Johnson's judgment on this poem, that it "abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo." See "Life of Gray." 6 Falling dew-This marks the time; for the bird being high in the air, was not, of course, in the midst of " falling dew." |