Title Page: Thomas Gray, Poems (1972)
Title
Title Page: Thomas Gray, Poems (1972)
Student Commentary:
On the title page to Blake’s illustrations to Thomas Gray’s Poems (1972 facsimile), a swan is flying in a deep blue sky. A man is riding on the back of the swan, holding the reigns and reaching for a lyre. He can be interpreted to be “The Pindaric Genius” behind Gray’s work, because a note on the verso of this image refers specifically to the “Genius receiving his Lyre” (symbolically, a sign that he is a poet).