Ode On A Distant Prospect Of Eton College
Ye
distant
spires,
ye
antique
towers,
That
crown
the
watry
glade,
Where
grateful
Science
still
adores
Her
Henry's
holy
shade;
And
ye
that
from
the
stately
brow
Of
Windsor's
height
th'
expanse
below
Of
grove,
of
lawn,
of
mead
survey,
Whose
turf,
whose
shade,
whose
flowers
among
Wanders
the
hoary
Thames
along
His
silver-winding
way.
Ah,
happy
hills,
ah,
pleasing
shade,
Ah
fields
beloved
in
vain,
Where
once
my
careless
childhood
strayed,
A
stranger
yet
to
pain!
I
feel
the
gales,
that
from
ye
blow,
A
momentary
bliss
bestow,
As
waving
fresh
their
gladsome
wing,
My
weary
soul
they
seem
to
soothe,
And,
redolent
of
youth,
To
breathe
a
second
spring.
Say,
Father
Thames,
for
thou
hast
seen
Full
many
a
sprightly
race
Disporting
on
thy
margent
green
The
paths
of
pleasure
trace,
Who
foremost
now
delight
to
cleave
With
pliant
arm
thy
glassy
wave?
The
captive
linnet
which
enthrall?
What
idle
progeny
succeed
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (born Dec. 26, 1716, London—died July 30, 1771, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.) English poet whose “An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” is one of the best known of English lyric poems. Although his literary output was slight, he was the dominant poetic figure in the mid-18th century and a precursor of the Romantic movement.