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The Works of Thomas Gray (2); Containing His Poems and Correspondence, With Memoirs of His Life and Writings
The Works of Thomas Gray Containing His Poems and Correspondence With Memoirs of His Life and Writings - 2 Author:Thomas Gray Volume: 2 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1825 Original Publisher: Printed for Harding, Triphook, and Lepard Description: Mikrofiche-Ausg.: Wildberg : Belser Wiss. Dienst, 1989 - 1990. (Edition Corvey) Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos... more » or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LINKS THE MEMORY OF MR. GRAY. EXTRACTED FROM THE THIRD BOOK OF MASON'S "ENGLISH GARDEN." Closed is that curious ear, by death's cold hand, That marked each error of my careless strain With kind severity ; to whom my Muse Still loved to whisper, what she meant to sing In louder accent; to whose taste supreme She first and last appealed, nor wished for praise, Save when his smile was herald to her fame. Yes, thou art gone; yet friendship's faltering tongue Invokes thee still; and still, by fancy soothed, Fain would she hope her Gray attends the call. Why then, alas! in this my favourite haunt, Place I the urn, the bust, the sculptured lyre", Mr. Gray died July 31st, 1771. This book was begun a few months after. The three following lines allude to a rustic alcove the Author was then building in his garden, in which he placed a medallion of his friend, and an urn ; a lyre ovor theentrance with the motto from Pindar, which Mr. Gray had prefixed to his Odes, QNANTA 2YNETOI2I : and under it, on a tablet, this stanza, taken from the first edition of his Elegy written in a Country Churchyard: Or fix this votive tablet, fair inscribed With numbers worthy thee, for they are thine ? Why, if thou hearest me still, these symbols sad Of fond memorial ? Ah! my pensive soul! He hears me not, nor ever more shall hear The theme his candour, not his taste approved. Oft, " smiling as in scorn," oft would he cry, " Why ...« less