"Awaits alike the inevitable Hour."
And so it stands in all three manuscripts, and in the printed edition
which he himself superintended. His meaning was, "The inevitable Hour
awaits everything. It stands there, waiting the boast of Heraldry,"
etc. But his editors, misled by his inverted style, supposed that it
was the gifts of Heraldry, Power, Beauty, etc., that were waiting, and
therefore corrected what they thought Gray's bad grammar, and printed
the word "await." But so they destroyed the meaning. These things were
not waiting at all for the dread hour; they were enjoying themselves,
careless of its approach. But "the hour" was waiting for them. Gray's
original reading has been restored in the last editions.
In tracing the development of this fine poem, we see it gradually
improving under his careful touch, till it becomes a work of high art.
In some poets--Wordsworth, for example--inspiration is at its maximum,
and art at its minimum. In Gray, I think, inspiration was at its
minimum, and art at its maximum.