...the river: Say Father Thames for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race, Disporting on thy margin green, The paths of pleasure trace, Who foremost now delight to cleave With pliant arms thy glassy wave. 50 Near the Thames' Lock, Windsor. Oil, exh. 1809. 35 x 46 Y2 in. (88.9 x 118...

...of the brightness, the motion, and the line of motion. P. 10. Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race Disporting on thy margent...the rolling circle's speed, Or urge the flying ball ? — GRAY. This is the only stanza that appears to me very objectionable in point of diction. This,...

...other is taken from a pnem by Wordsworth, Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprighrly race Disporting on thy margent green The paths of...delight to cleave With pliant arm thy glassy wave? ( Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College) In the sweer shite of Cardigan, Not far from...

...sombre forebodings about the boys playing and studying there. Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race Disporting on thy margent...pliant arm thy glassy wave? The captive linnet which enthrall? What idle progeny succeed To chase the rolling circle's speed, Or urge the flying ball? While...

...poet but is not. The speaker is too far away to see the details Father Thames is asked to describe: Who foremost now delight to cleave With pliant arm thy glassy wave? The captive linnet which enthrall? What idle progeny succeed To chase the rolling circle's speed, Or urge the flying ball? (11....

...youth "with naked arm once more dividing]" the "yielding wave" of the Thames, which anticipates Gray's "Who foremost now delight to cleave / With pliant arm thy glassy wave?" Gray may have read the Croxall poem before writing his own ode, but there is no need to posit direct...