1747.1

Poet Thomas Gray: "Urge the Flying Ball."

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags	College, FamousCollege, Famous
Location	EnglandEngland
City/State/Country:	Eton College, [[]]
Modern Address
Game
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	YouthYouth
Holiday
Notables
Text	"What idle progeny succeed To chase the rolling circle's speed, Or urge the flying ball?"
Sources	Thomas Gray, "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College," lines 28-30. Accessed 12/29/2007 at http://www.thomasgray.org.
Warning
Comment	"Rolling circle" had been drafted as "hoop," and thus does not connote ballplaying . Cricket writers have seen "flying ball" as a cricket reference, but one Gray scholar cites "Bentley's Print" as a basis for concluding that Gray was referring to trap ball in this line. Steel and Lyttelton note that this poem was first published in 1747. The phrase "urge the flying ball" is re-used in later writings, presumably to evoke cricket playing. Edit with form to add a comment
Query	Do modern scholars agree with the 1747 publication date? Is it fair to assume that Gray is evoking student play at Eton in this ode? Edit with form to add a query
Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
External Number
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Submission Note
Has Supplemental Text

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