GRAY, Thomas. Poems
The Eton College Press: [Eton], 1902.
£ 250
4to (27.5 x 18.5 cm). xiv., 165 pp. Bound-in Eton presentation page (completed and dated); half-title and title page with albumen frontispiece portrait of Gray. Bookplate of Norman D. Newall on top pastedown. In English and Latin; prose and verse. Also includes 3 fine steel engraved plates by Charles Radclyffe. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt; very wide margins; large and well-spaced text. Full tan Eton prize binding by Spottiswoode and Co. with gilt arms (A chevron sable between three escallops and motto (Ung Dieu Ung Roy); gilt tooling and gilt decoration on spine and boards. An excellent copy, with very clean and crisp pages.
Thomas Gray (1716 – 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Despite his popularity, Gray was an extremely self-critical writer and only published 13 poems in his lifetime. This book contains a collection of Gray’s Odes, Songs, Extracts and letters; including “Ode on the Spring”, “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat”, “The Progress of Poetry” and the renowned “Elegy written in a Country Church-yard”. The present copy also includes some translations into Latin verse.