This Ode, as we learn from one of Gray's letters to Walpole, was
finished, with the exception of a few lines, in 1755. It was not
published until 1757, when it appeared with _The Bard_ in a quarto
volume, which was the first issue of Walpole's press at Strawberry
Hill. In one of his letters Walpole writes: "I send you two copies of
a very honourable opening of my press--two amazing odes of Mr. Gray.
They are Greek, they are Pindaric, they are sublime, consequently I
fear a little obscure; the second particularly, by the confinement of
the measure and the nature of prophetic vision, is mysterious. I
could not persuade him to add more notes." In another letter Walpole
says: "I found Gray in town last week; he had brought his two odes to
be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's hands, and they are to
be the first-fruits of my press." The title-page of the volume is as
follows:
ODES
BY
MR. GRAY.
[Greek: PHÔNANTA SUNETOISI]--PINDAR, Olymp, II.
PRINTED AT STRAWBERRY-HILL,
for R. and J. DODSLEY in Pall-Mall.
MDCCLVII.
Both Odes were coldly received at first. "Even my friends," writes
Gray, in a letter to Hurd, Aug. 25, 1757, "tell me they do not
_succeed_, and write me moving topics of consolation on that head. In
short, I have heard of nobody but an Actor [Garrick] and a Doctor of
Divinity [Warburton] that profess their esteem for them. Oh yes, a
Lady of quality (a friend of Mason's) who is a great reader. She knew
there was a compliment to Dryden, but never suspected there was
anything said about Shakespeare or Milton, till it was explained to
her, and wishes that there had been titles prefixed to tell what they
were about."[1] In a letter to Dr. Wharton, dated Aug. 17, 1757, he
says: "I hear we are not at all popular. The great objection is
obscurity, nobody knows what we would be at. One man (a Peer) I have
been told of, that thinks the last stanza of the 2d Ode relates to
Charles the First and Oliver Cromwell; in short, the [Greek: Sunetoi]
appear to be still fewer than even I expected." A writer in the
_Critical Review_ thought that "Æolian lyre" meant the Æolian harp.
Coleman the elder and Robert Lloyd wrote parodies entitled Odes to
Obscurity and Oblivion. Gray finally had to add explanatory notes,
though he intimates that his readers ought not to have needed
them.[2]
[Footnote 1: Forster remarks that Gray might have added to the
admirers of the Odes "the poor monthly critic of _The
Dunciad_"--Oliver Goldsmith, then beginning his London career as a
bookseller's hack. In a review of the Odes in the _London Monthly
Review_ for Sept., 1757, after citing certain passages of _The Bard_,
he says that they "will give as much pleasure to those who relish
this species of composition as anything that has hitherto appeared in
our language, the odes of Dryden himself not excepted."]
[Footnote 2: In a foot-note he says: "When the author first published
this and the following Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to
subjoin some few explanatory notes; but had too much respect for the
understanding of his readers to take that liberty."
In a letter to Beattie, dated Feb. 1, 1768, referring to the new
edition of his poems, he says: "As to the notes, I do it out of
spite, because the public did not understand the two Odes (which I
have called Pindaric), though the first was not very dark, and the
second alluded to a few common facts to be found in any sixpenny
history of England, by way of question and answer, for the use of
children." And in a letter to Walpole, Feb. 25, 1768, he says he has
added "certain little Notes, partly from justice (to acknowledge the
debt where I had borrowed anything), partly from ill temper, just to
tell the gentle reader that Edward I. was not Oliver Cromwell, nor
Queen Elizabeth the Witch of Endor."
Mr. Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, said that "if the Bard recited his
Ode only _once_ to Edward, he was sure he could not understand it."
When this was told to Gray, he said, "If he had recited it twenty
times, Edward would not have been a bit wiser; but that was no reason
why Mr. Fox should not."]
"The metre of these Odes is constructed on Greek models. It is not
uniform but symmetrical. The nine stanzas of each ode form three
groups. A slight examination will show that the 1st, 4th, and 7th
stanzas are exactly inter-correspondent; so the 2d, 5th, and 8th; and
so the remaining three. The technical Greek names for these three
parts were [Greek: strophê] (strophe), [Greek: antistrophê]
(antistrophe), and [Greek: epôdos] (epodos)--the Turn, the
Counter-turn, and the After-song--names derived from the theatre; the
Turn denoting the movement of the Chorus from one side of the [Greek:
orchêstra] (orchestra), or Dance-stage, to the other, the
Counter-turn the reverse movement, the After-song something sung
after two such movements. Odes thus constructed were called by the
Greeks Epodic. Congreve is said to have been the first who so
constructed English odes. This system cannot be said to have
prospered with us. Perhaps no English ear would instinctively
recognize that correspondence between distant parts which is the
secret of it. Certainly very many readers of _The Progress of Poesy_
are wholly unconscious of any such harmony" (Hales).
[Illustration: ALCÆUS AND SAPPHO. FROM A PAINTING ON A VASE.]
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. _And give to rapture_. The first reading of the MS. was "give to
transport."
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.