1747.1

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Poet Thomas Gray: "Urge the Flying Ball."

Salience Noteworthy
Tags College, Famous
Location England
Immediacy of Report Contemporary
Age of Players Youth
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.

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.

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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?

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Comments

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