"[Epitaph on a Child]"

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Commentary: Notes/Queries: 2 (Textual [T]: 1, Explanatory [E]: 1)

Notes			Line	Text
T	E	T/E		"[Epitaph on a Child]"

			1	Here, freed from pain, secure from misery, lies
			2	A child, the darling of his parents' eyes:
			3	A gentler lamb ne'er sported on the plain,
			4	A fairer flower will never bloom again.
			5	Few were the days allotted to his breath;
			6	Now let him sleep in peace his night of death.

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Note on the text

Composition / Publication: 1758 / 1884	Form: aa
Original Text: Holograph MS	Genre: Epitaph
Editorial information: A brief introduction and a list of MS witnesses is available. Spelling has been modernized throughout, except in case of conscious archaisms. Contractions, italics and initial capitalization have been largely eliminated, except where of real import. Obvious errors have been silently corrected, punctuation has been supplied. The editor would like to express his gratitude to the library staff of the Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) for their invaluable assistance.

Works cited in the commentary

[BrJ_1891] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1891.

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