The Progress of Poesy

Notes by William J. Rolfe, Select Poems of Thomas Gray (1876; Project Gutenberg #30357).

1. Stanza 1, line 1 Awake, Æolian lyre. The blunder of the Critical Reviewers who supposed the "harp of Æolus" to be meant led Gray to insert this note: "Pindar styles his own poetry with its musical accompaniments, [Greek: Aiolis molpê, Aiolides chordai, Aiolidôn pnoai aulôn], Æolian song, Æolian strings, the breath of the Æolian flute." Cf. Cowley, Ode of David: "Awake, awake, my lyre!" Gray himself quotes Ps. lvii. 8. The first reading of the line in the MS. was, "Awake, my lyre: my glory, wake." Gray also adds the following note: "The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. The various sources of poetry, which gives life and lustre to all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its more rapid and irresistible course, when swollen and hurried away by the conflict of tumultuous passions."
2. Stanza 1, line 2 And give to rapture. The first reading of the MS. was "give to transport."
3. Stanza 1, line 3 Helicon's harmonious springs. In the mountain range of Helicon, in Boeotia, there were two fountains sacred to the Muses, Aganippe and Hippocrene, of which the former was the more famous.
4. Stanza 1, line 7 Cf. Pope, Hor. Epist. ii. 2, 171: "Pour the full tide of eloquence along, Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong;" and Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, 11: "The deep, majestic, solemn organs blow;" also Thomson, Liberty, ii. 257: "In thy full language speaking mighty things, Like a clear torrent close, or else diffus'd A broad majestic stream, and rolling on Through all the winding harmony of sound."
5. Stanza 1, line 9 Cf. Shenstone, Inscr.: "Verdant vales and fountains bright;" also Virgil, Geo. i. 96: "Flava Ceres;" and Homer, Il. v. 499: [Greek: xanthê Dêmêtêr].
6. Stanza 1, line 10 Rolling. Spelled "rowling" in the 1st and other early editions. Amain. Cf. Lycidas, 111: "The golden opes, the iron shuts amain;" P. L. ii. 165: "when we fled amain," etc. Also Shakes. Temp. iv. 1: "Her peacocks fly amain," etc. The word means literally with main (which we still use in "might and main"), that is, with force or strength. Cf. Horace, Od. iv. 2, 8: "Immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore."
7. Stanza 1, line 11 The first MS. reading was, "With torrent rapture see it pour."
8. Stanza 1, line 12 Cf. Dryden, Virgil's Geo. i.: "And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas resound;" Pope, Iliad: "Rocks rebellow to the roar."
9. Stanza 2, line 1 "Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian of Pindar" (Gray).
10. Stanza 2, line 2 Solemn-breathing airs. Cf. Comus, 555: "a soft and solemn-breathing sound."
11. Stanza 2, line 3 Enchanting shell. That is, lyre; alluding to the myth of the origin of the instrument, which Mercury was said to have made from the shell of a tortoise. Cf. Collins, Passions, 3: "The Passions oft, to hear her shell," etc.
12. Stanza 2, line 5 On Thracia's hills. Thrace was one of the chief seats of the worship of Mars. Cf. Ovid, Ars Am. ii. 588: "Mars Thracen occupat." See also Virgil, Æn. iii. 35, etc.
13. Stanza 2, line 7 His thirsty lance. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5, 15: "his thristy [thirsty] blade."
14. Stanza 2, line 8 Gray says, "This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in the same ode;" that is, in "the first Pythian of Pindar," referred to in the note on 13. The passage is an address to the lyre, and is translated by Wakefield thus: "On Jove's imperial rod the king of birds Drops down his flagging wings; thy thrilling sounds Soothe his fierce beak, and pour a sable cloud Of slumber on his eyelids: up he lifts His flexile back, shot by thy piercing darts. Mars smooths his rugged brow, and nerveless drops His lance, relenting at the choral song."
15. Stanza 2, line 9 The feather'd king. Cf. Shakes. Phoenix and Turtle: "Every fowl of tyrant wing, Save the eagle, feather'd king."
16. Stanza 2, line 11 Dark clouds. The first reading of MS. was "black clouds."
17. Stanza 2, line 12 The terror. This is the reading of the first ed. and also of that of 1768. Most of the modern eds. have "terrors."
18. Stanza 3, line 1 "Power of harmony to produce all the graces of motion in the body" (Gray).
19. Stanza 3, line 2 Temper'd. Modulated, "set." Cf. Lycidas, 33: "Tempered to the oaten flute;" Fletcher, Purple Island: "Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay," etc.
20. Stanza 3, line 3 O'er Idalia's velvet-green. Idalia appears to be used for Idalium, which was a town in Cyprus, and a favourite seat of Venus, who was sometimes called Idalia. Pope likewise uses Idalia for the place, in his First Pastoral, 65: "Celestial Venus haunts Idalia's groves." Dr. Johnson finds fault with velvet-green, apparently supposing it to be a compound of Gray's own making. But Young had used it in his Love of Fame: "She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet-green." It is also among the expressions of Pope which are ridiculed in the Alexandriad.
21. Stanza 3, line 5 Cytherea was a name of Venus, derived from Cythera, an island in the Ægean Sea, one of the favourite residences of Aphrodite, or Venus. Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 680: "super alta Cythera Aut super Idalium, sacrata sede," etc.
22. Stanza 3, line 6 With antic Sports. This is the reading of the 1st ed. and also of the ed. of 1768. Some eds. have "sport." Antic is the same word as antique. The association between what is old or old-fashioned and what is odd, fantastic, or grotesque is obvious enough. Cf. Milton, Il Pens. 158: "With antick pillars massy-proof." In S. A. 1325 he uses the word as a noun: "Jugglers and dancers, anticks, mummers, mimicks." Shakes. makes it a verb in A. and C. ii. 7: "the wild disguise hath almost Antick'd us all."
23. Stanza 3, line 7 Cf. Thomson, Spring, 835: "In friskful glee Their frolics play." 32, 33. Cf. Virgil, Æn. v. 580 foll.
24. Stanza 3, line 11 Gray quotes Homer, Od. ix. 265: [Greek: marmarugas thêeito podôn thaumaze de thumôi]. Cf. Catullus's "fulgentem plantam." See also Thomson, Spring, 158: "the many-twinkling leaves Of aspin tall."
25. Stanza 3, line 12 Slow-melting strains, etc. Cf. a poem by Barton Booth, published in 1733: "Now to a slow and melting air she moves, So like in air, in shape, in mien, She passes for the Paphian queen; The Graces all around her play, The wondering gazers die away; Whether her easy body bend, Or her fair bosom heave with sighs; Whether her graceful arms extend, Or gently fall, or slowly rise; Or returning or advancing, Swimming round, or sidelong glancing, Strange force of motion that subdues the soul."
26. Stanza 3, line 13 Cf. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 191: "For wheresoe'er she turn'd her face, they bow'd."
27. Stanza 3, line 15 Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 405: "Incessu patuit dea." The gods were represented as gliding or sailing along without moving their feet.
28. Stanza 3, line 17 Purple light of love. Cf. Virgil, Æn. i. 590: "lumenque juventae Purpureum." Gray quotes Phrynichus, apud Athenæum: [Greek: lampei d' epi porphureêisi pareiêisi phôs erôtos.] See also Dryden, Brit. Red. 133: "and her own purple light."
29. Stanza 4, line 1 "To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, the Muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that sends the day by its cheerful presence to dispel the gloom and terrors of the night" (Gray). 43 foll. See on Eton Coll. 83. Cf. Horace, Od. i. 3, 29-33.
30. Stanza 4, line 5 Fond complaint. Foolish complaint. Cf. Shakes. M. of V. iii. 3: "I do wonder, Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond To come abroad with him at his request;" Milton, S. A. 812: "fond and reasonless," etc. This appears to be the original meaning of the word. In Wiclif's Bible. 1 Cor. i. 27, we have "the thingis that ben fonnyd of the world." In Twelfth Night, ii. 2, the word is used as a verb=dote: "And I, poor monster, fond as much on him, As she, mistaken, seems to dote on me."
31. Stanza 4, line 8 Hurd quotes Cowley: "Night and her ugly subjects thou dost fright, And Sleep, the lazy owl of night; Asham'd and fearful to appear, They screen their horrid shapes with the black hemisphere." Wakefield cites Milton, Hymn on Nativity, 233 foll.: "The flocking shadows pale," etc. See also P. R. iv. 419-431.
32. Stanza 4, line 9 Birds of boding cry. Cf. Green's Grotto: "news the boding night-birds tell."
33. Stanza 4, line 11 Gray refers to Cowley, Brutus: "One would have thought 't had heard the morning crow, Or seen her well-appointed star. Come marching up the eastern hill afar." The following variations on 52 and 53 are found in the MS.: Till fierce Hyperion from afar Pours on their scatter'd rear, | Hurls at " flying " | his glittering shafts of war. " o'er " scatter'd " | " " " shadowy " | Till " " " " from far Hyperion hurls around his, etc. The accent of Hyperion is properly on the penult, which is long in quantity, but the English poets, with rare exceptions, have thrown it back upon the antepenult. It is thus in the six instances in which Shakes. uses the word: e.g. Hamlet, iii. 4: "Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself." The word does not occur in Milton. It is correctly accented by Drummond (of Hawthornden), Wand. Muses: "That Hyperion far beyond his bed Doth see our lions ramp, our roses spread;" by West, Pindar's Ol. viii. 22: "Then Hyperion's son, pure fount of day, Did to his children the strange tale reveal;" also by Akenside, and by the author of the old play Fuimus Troes (A.D. 1633): "Blow, gentle Africus, Play on our poops when Hyperion's son Shall couch in west." Hyperion was a Titan, the father of Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn). He was represented with the attributes of beauty and splendor afterwards ascribed to Apollo. His "glittering shafts" are of course the sunbeams, the "lucida tela diei" of Lucretius. Cf. a very beautiful description of the dawn in Lowell's Above and Below: "'Tis from these heights alone your eyes The advancing spears of day can see, Which o'er the eastern hill-tops rise, To break your long captivity." We may quote also his Vision of Sir Launfal: "It seemed the dark castle had gathered all Those shafts the fierce sun had shot over its wall In his siege of three hundred summers long," etc.
34. Stanza 5, line 1 Gray's note here is as follows: "Extensive influence of poetic genius over the remotest and most uncivilized nations; its connection with liberty and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, Norwegian, and Welsh fragments; the Lapland and American songs.]" He also quotes Virgil, Æn. vi. 796: "Extra anni solisque vias," and Petrarch, Canz. 2: "Tutta lontana dal camin del sole." Cf. also Dryden, Thren. August. 353: "Out of the solar walk and Heaven's highway;" Ann. Mirab. st. 160: "Beyond the year, and out of Heaven's highway;" Brit. Red.: "Beyond the sunny walks and circling year;" also Pope, Essay on Man, i. 102: "Far as the solar walk and milky way."
35. Stanza 5, line 3 Twilight gloom. Wakefield quotes Milton, Hymn on Nativ. 188: "The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn."
36. Stanza 5, line 4 Wakefield says, "It almost chills one to read this verse." The MS. variations are "buried native's" and "chill abode."
37. Stanza 5, line 7 Repeat [their chiefs, etc.]. Sing of them again and again.
38. Stanza 5, line 8 In loose numbers, etc. Cf. Milton, L'All. 133: "Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, Warble his native wood-notes wild;" and Horace, Od. iv. 2, 11: "numerisque fertur Lege solutis."
39. Stanza 5, line 9 Their feather-cinctur'd chiefs. Cf. P. L. ix. 1115: "Such of late Columbus found the American, so girt With feather'd cincture."
40. Stanza 5, line 11 Glory pursue. Wakefield remarks that this use of a plural verb after the first of a series of subjects is in Pindar's manner. Warton compares Homer, Il. v. 774: [Greek: hêchi rhoas Simoeis sumballeton êde Skamandros.] Dugald Stewart (Philos. of Human Mind) says: "I cannot help remarking the effect of the solemn and uniform flow of verse in this exquisite stanza, in retarding the pronunciation of the reader, so as to arrest his attention to every successive picture, till it has time to produce its proper impression."
41. Stanza 5, line 12 Freedom's holy flame. Cf. Akenside, Pleas. of Imag. i. 468: "Love's holy flame." [Illustration: THE VALE OF TEMPE.]
42. Stanza 6, line 1 "Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the writings of Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt had travelled in Italy, and formed their taste there; Spenser imitated the Italian writers; Milton improved on them: but this school expired soon after the Restoration, and a new one arose on the French model, which has subsisted ever since" (Gray). Delphi's steep. Cf. Milton, Hymn on Nativ. 178: "the steep of Delphos;" P. L. i. 517: "the Delphian cliff." Both Shakes. and Milton prefer the mediæval form Delphos to the more usual Delphi. Delphi was at the foot of the southern uplands of Parnassus which end "in a precipitous cliff, 2000 feet high, rising to a double peak named the Phædriades, from their glittering appearance as they faced the rays of the sun" (Smith's Anc. Geog.).
43. Stanza 6, line 2 Isles, etc. Cf. Byron: "The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung," etc.
44. Stanza 6, line 3 Ilissus. This river, rising on the northern slope of Hymettus, flows through the east side of Athens.
45. Stanza 6, line 4 Mæander's amber waves. Cf. Milton, P. L. iii. 359: "Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream;" P. R. iii. 288: "There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream." See also Virgil, Geo. iii. 520: "Purior electro campum petit amnis." Callimachus (Cer. 29) has [Greek: alektrinon hudôr].
46. Stanza 6, line 5 Ovid, Met. viii. 162, describes the Mæander thus: "Non secus ac liquidis Phrygiis Maeandros in arvis Ludit, et ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque." Cf. also Virgil's description of the Mincius (Geo. iii. 15): --"tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat Mincius." "The first great metropolis of Hellenic intellectual life was Miletus on the Mæander. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximines, Cadmus, Hecatæus, etc., were all Milesians" (Hales). 71 foll. Cf. Milton, Hymn on Nativ. 181: "The lonely mountains o'er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; From haunted spring and dale, Edged with poplar pale, The parting Genius is with sighing sent:" etc.
47. Stanza 6, line 10 Hallowed fountain. Cf. Virgil, Ecl. i. 53: "fontes sacros."
48. Stanza 6, line 11 The MS. has "Murmur'd a celestial sound."
49. Stanza 6, line 15 Vice that revels in her chains. In his Ode for Music, 6, Gray has "Servitude that hugs her chain."
50. Stanza 6, line 16 Hales quotes Collins, Ode to Simplicity: "While Rome could none esteem But Virtue's patriot theme, You lov'd her hills, and led her laureate band; But staid to sing alone To one distinguish'd throne, And turn'd thy face, and fled her alter'd land."
51. Stanza 7, line 2 Nature's darling. "Shakespeare" (Gray). Cf. Cleveland, Poems: "Here lies within this stony shade Nature's darling; whom she made Her fairest model, her brief story, In him heaping all her glory." On green lap, cf. Milton, Song on May Morning: "The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose."
52. Stanza 7, line 3 Lucid Avon. Cf. Seneca, Thyest. 129: "gelido flumine lucidus Alpheos."
53. Stanza 7, line 4 The mighty mother. That is, Nature. Pope, in the Dunciad, i. 1, uses the same expression in a satirical way: "The Mighty Mother, and her Son, who brings The Smithfield Muses to the ear of kings, I sing." See also Dryden, Georgics, i. 466: "On the green turf thy careless limbs display, And celebrate the mighty mother's day."
54. Stanza 7, line 5 The dauntless child. Cf. Horace, Od. iii. 4, 20: "non sine dis animosus infans." Wakefield quotes Virgil, Ecl. iv. 60: "Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem." Mitford points out that the identical expression occurs in Sandys's translation of Ovid, Met. iv. 515: "the child Stretch'd forth its little arms, and on him smil'd." See also Catullus, In Nupt. Jun. et Manl. 216: "Torquatus volo parvulus Matris e gremio suae Porrigens teneras manus, Dulce rideat."
55. Stanza 7, line 9 These golden keys. Cf. Young, Resig.: "Nature, which favours to the few All art beyond imparts, To him presented at his birth The key of human hearts." Wakefield cites Comus, 12: "Yet some there be, that with due steps aspire To lay their hands upon that golden key That opes the palace of eternity." See also Lycidas, 110: "Two massy keys he bore of metals twain; The golden opes, the iron shuts amain."
56. Stanza 7, line 11 Of horror. A MS. variation is "Of terror."
57. Stanza 7, line 12 Or ope the sacred source. In a letter to Dr. Wharton, Sept. 7, 1757, Gray mentions, among other criticisms upon this ode, that "Dr. Akenside criticises opening a source with a key." But, as Mitford remarks, Akenside himself in his Ode on Lyric Poetry has, "While I so late unlock thy purer springs," and in his Pleasures of Imagination, "I unlock the springs of ancient wisdom."
58. Stanza 8, line 1 Nor second he, etc. "Milton" (Gray). 96, 97. Cf. Milton, P. L. vii. 12: "Up led by thee, Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed, An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air."
59. Stanza 8, line 4 The flaming bounds, etc. Gray quotes Lucretius, i. 74: "Flammantia moenia mundi." Cf. also Horace, Epist. i. 14, 9: "amat spatiis obstantia rumpere claustra."
60. Stanza 8, line 5 Gray quotes Ezekiel i. 20, 26, 28. See also Milton, At a Solemn Music, 7: "Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne;" Il Pens. 53: "the fiery-wheeled throne;" P. L. vi. 758: "Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Amber, and colours of the showery arch;" and id. vi. 771: "He on the wings of cherub rode sublime, On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned."
61. Stanza 8, line 7 Blasted with excess of light. Cf. P. L. iii. 380: "Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear."
62. Stanza 8, line 8 Cf. Virgil, Æn. x. 746: "in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem," which Dryden translates, "And closed her lids at last in endless night." Gray quotes Homer, Od. viii. 64: [Greek: Ophthalmôn men amerses, didou d' hêdeian aoidên.]
63. Stanza 8, line 9 Gray, according to Mason, "admired Dryden almost beyond bounds."[3] [Footnote 3: In a journey through Scotland in 1765, Gray became acquainted with Beattie, to whom he commended the study of Dryden, adding that "if there was any excellence in his own numbers, he had learned it wholly from the great poet."]
64. Stanza 8, line 11 "Meant to express the stately march and sounding energy of Dryden's rhymes" (Gray). Cf. Pope, Imit. of Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 267: "Waller was smooth: but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full-resounding line, The long majestic march, and energy divine."
65. Stanza 8, line 12 Gray quotes Job xxxix. 19: "Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?"
66. Stanza 9, line 2 Bright-eyed. The MS. has "full-plumed."
67. Stanza 9, line 4 Gray quotes Cowley, Prophet: "Words that weep, and tears that speak." Dugald Stewart remarks upon this line: "I have sometimes thought that Gray had in view the two different effects of words already described; the effect of some in awakening the powers of conception and imagination; and that of others in exciting associated emotions."
68. Stanza 9, line 5 "We have had in our language no other odes of the sublime kind than that of Dryden on St. Cecilia's Day; for Cowley (who had his merit) yet wanted judgment, style, and harmony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of so great a man. Mr. Mason, indeed, of late days, has touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in some of his choruses; above all in the last of Caractacus: 'Hark! heard ye not yon footstep dread!' etc." (Gray).
69. Stanza 9, line 7 Wakes thee now. Cf. Elegy, 48: "Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre."
70. Stanza 9, line 9 "[Greek: Dios pros ornicha theion]. Olymp. ii. 159. Pindar compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight, regardless of their noise" (Gray). Cf. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4, 42: "Like to an Eagle, in his kingly pride Soring through his wide Empire of the aire, To weather his brode sailes." Cowley, in his translation of Horace, Od. iv. 2, calls Pindar "the Theban swan" ("Dircaeum cycnum"): "Lo! how the obsequious wind and swelling air The Theban Swan does upward bear."
71. Stanza 9, line 11 Azure deep of air. Cf. Euripides, Med. 1294: [Greek: es aitheros bathos]; and Lucretius, ii. 151: "Aëris in magnum fertur mare." Cowley has "Row through the trackless ocean of air;" and Shakes. (T. of A. iv. 2), "this sea of air." 118, 119. The MS. reads: "Yet when they first were open'd on the day Before his visionary eyes would run." D. Stewart (Philos. of Human Mind) remarks that "Gray, in describing the infantine reveries of poetical genius, has fixed with exquisite judgment on that class of our conceptions which are derived from visible objects."
72. Stanza 9, line 14 With orient hues. Cf. Milton, P. L. i. 546: "with orient colours waving."
73. Stanza 9, line 16 The MS. has "Yet never can he fear a vulgar fate."
74. Stanza 9, line 17 Cf. K. Philips: "Still shew'd how much the good outshone the great." We append, as a curiosity of criticism, Dr. Johnson's comments on this ode, from his Lives of the Poets. The Life of Gray has been called "the worst in the series," and perhaps this is the worst part of it:[4] "My process has now brought me to the wonderful 'Wonder of Wonders,' the two Sister Odes, by which, though either vulgar ignorance or common-sense at first universally rejected them, many have been since persuaded to think themselves delighted. I am one of those that are willing to be pleased, and therefore would gladly find the meaning of the first stanza of 'The Progress of Poetry.' "Gray seems in his rapture to confound the images of spreading sound and running water. A 'stream of music' may be allowed; but where does 'music,' however 'smooth and strong,' after having visited the 'verdant vales, roll down the steep amain,' so as that 'rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar?' If this be said of music, it is nonsense; if it be said of water, it is nothing to the purpose. "The second stanza, exhibiting Mars's car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a schoolboy to his commonplaces. "To the third it may likewise be objected that it is drawn from mythology, though such as may be more easily assimilated to real life. Idalia's 'velvet-green' has something of cant. An epithet or metaphor drawn from Nature ennobles Art; an epithet or metaphor drawn from Art degrades Nature. Gray is too fond of words arbitrarily compounded. 'Many-twinkling' was formerly censured as not analogical; we may say 'many-spotted,' but scarcely 'many-spotting.' This stanza, however, has something pleasing. "Of the second ternary of stanzas, the first endeavours to tell something, and would have told it, had it not been crossed by Hyperion; the second describes well enough the universal prevalence of poetry; but I am afraid that the conclusion will not arise from the premises. The caverns of the North and the plains of Chili are not the residences of 'Glory and generous Shame.' But that Poetry and Virtue go always together is an opinion so pleasing that I can forgive him who resolves to think it true. "The third stanza sounds big with 'Delphi,' and 'Ægean,' and 'Ilissus,' and 'Mæander,' and with 'hallowed fountains,' and 'solemn sound;' but in all Gray's odes there is a kind of cumbrous splendour which we wish away. His position is at last false: in the t …