The Poetical Works Of David Gray A New And Enlarged Edition Edited By H G Bell

Author : David Gray
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781973154068
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (54 download)

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Download or read book The Poetical Works of David Gray written by David Gray and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new Edition of the Works of David Gray, containing, it isbelieved, all the maturely finished poems of the author, is a doublememorial. It commemorates "the thin-spun life" of a man of truegenius and rare promise, and the highly cultured judgment and tendersympathies of a critic who has passed away in the vigorous fulness ofhis years.A specimen page of "The Luggie," forwarded with an appreciative letterfrom a friend, reached the author on the day before his death. Hereceived it as "good news"--the fragmentary realization of his ambitiousdreams--and, in the hope that his name might not be wholly forgotten,said he could now enter "without tears" into his rest.Within a week before his removal from amongst us, Mr. Glassford Bellwas engaged in correcting the proofs of the present edition. He hadselected from a mass of MSS. and other material what new pieces hethought worthy of insertion in this enlarged edition--he had rearrangedthe whole and finally revised the greater part of the volume, which itwas his intention to preface with a Memoir and Criticism. He lookedforward to accomplishing this labour of love in a period of retirementfrom more active work which he had proposed to pass in Italy.It has been thought inadvisable to commit to other hands theunexpectedly interrupted task. For a statement of the few andsimple vicissitudes of the Poet's career, as well as a brief butdiscriminating estimate of his rank in our literature, the reader isreferred to the speech--at the close of the volume--delivered by Mr.Bell, nine years ago, on the inauguration of the Monument in the"Auld Aisle" Burying-ground. Of the movement which resulted in thistribute to departed genius, the late Sheriff was one of the most activepromoters. Himself a poet, and a generous patron of all genuine art,the West of Scotland has known no "larger heart" or "kindlier hand."There is something suggestive in the fact that his last effort was tothrow another wreath on the early tomb of David Gray.