Summary: Written at Stoke Pogesearly in June 1742 and sent in a letter, [c. 3 June 1742], to Richard West who was then dead. The letter was returned unopened and does not survive. First published, anonymously, in Dodsley'sCollection of Poems by Several Hands, 3 vols, vol. II. (London, 1748), 265-267, reprinted in 6 vols, vol. II. (London, 1758 and later edns.), 325-327.
Contents: Transcript in an unidentified neat and legible hand, entitled "Ode on the Spring" (p. 1) ("Ode. I." [p. 3]). The poem is part of a section called "Poems", which is separately paginated and has its own table of contents (p. 129), in a volume entitled Gray's Poems. The book carries the bookplate of Gray's friend and biographer William Mason.