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With orient hues,^{[N 1]} unborrow'd of the sun: 120
 Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,^{[V 1]}
Beneath the Good how far—but far above the Great.^{[N 2]}

 

THE BARD.

A PINDARIC ODE.

[This Ode is founded on a tradition current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he completed the conquest of that country, ordered all the Bards that fell into his hands to be put to death. Gray. (See Barrington on the Statutes, p. 358; Jones's Relics, vol. i. p. 38; Sayer's Essays, p. 20.)

1. 1.

"Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!^{[N 3]}
Confusion on thy banners wait;

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Variants

1. Var. V. 122. "Yet never can he fear a vulgar fate," MS.

Notes

1. V. 120. Spenser. Hymn: "With much more orient hew." Milt. Par. L. i. 545: "with orient colours." Luke.
2. V. 123. "Still show how much the good outshone the great." K. Philips, fol. p. 133.
   "I have sometimes thought (says Prof. D. Stewart) that in the last line of the following passage, Gray had in view the two different effects of words already described; the effect of some, in awakening the powers of conception and imagination; and that of others in exciting associated emotions,
   "Hark, his hands the lyre explore!
   Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er,
   Scatters from her pictur'd urn
   Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."
   
   
   V. Elem. of the Phil. of the H. Mind, vol. i. p. 507.
3. V. 1. Shakes. Hen. VI. 2nd part, act i, sc. 3: "See ruthless Queen, a hapless father's tears." Luke.