Lyric Poem · Nature
Ode On The Spring
by Thomas Gray
1Lo! where the rosy-bosomed Hours,
2Fair Venus' train, appear,
3Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
4And wake the purple year!
5The Attic warbler pours her throat,
6Responsive to the cuckoo's note,
7The untaught harmony of spring:
8While, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
9Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky
10Their gathered fragrance fling.
11Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch
12A broader browner shade,
13Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech
14O'er-canopies the glade,
15Beside some water's rushy brink
16With me the Muse shall sit, and think
17(At ease reclined in rustic state)
18How vain the ardour of the Crowd,
19How low, how little are the Proud,
20How indigent the Great!
21Still is the toiling hand of Care;
22The panting herds repose:
23Yet hark, how through the peopled air
24The busy murmur glows!
25The insect-youth are on the wing,
26Eager to taste the honied spring
27And float amid the liquid noon:
28Some lightly o'er the current skim,
29Some show their gayly-gilded trim
30Quick-glancing to the sun.
31To Contemplation's sober eye
32Such is the race of Man:
33And they that creep, and they that fly,
34Shall end where they began.
35Alike the Busy and the Gay
36But flutter thro' life's little day,
37In Fortune's varying colours drest:
38Brushed by the hand of rough Mischance,
39Or chilled by Age, their airy dance
40They leave, in dust to rest.
41Methinks I hear, in accents low,
42The sportive kind reply:
43Poor moralist! and what art thou?
44A solitary fly!
45Thy joys no glittering female meets,
46No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets,
47No painted plumage to display:
48On hasty wings thy youth is flown;
49Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone—
50We frolic while 'tis May.
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“Ode On The Spring” by Thomas Gray — quilloak.com/poems/ode-on-the-spring
Quick facts
- Poem
- Ode On The Spring
- Poet
- Thomas Gray
- Length
- 50 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Spring, Childhood
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 50 lines · 5 stanzas of 10 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Thomas Gray1716–1771
- Source record
- PoetryDBOde On The Spring by thomas-gray, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 26e0921bb2b7da31…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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