...uncorrected and even unnoted. The Ode on the Poetical Character begins in this as in earlier editions: — As once, if not with light Regard, I read aright that gifted Bard. Surely it is not asking too much of an editor who has no chance, as in this case, of doing much else...

...Health, Thy gentlest influence own, And hymn thy favourite name! ODE ON THE POETICAL CHARACTEK STROPHE As once— if not with light regard I read aright that gifted bard (Him whose school above the rest His loveliest Elfin Queen has blest) — One, only one, unrivalled fair...

...how far - but far above the Great. 8. William Collins (1746) Ode on the Poetical Character Strophe As once, if not with light regard, I read aright that gifted bard (Him whose school above the rest His loveliest Elfin Queen has blest). 5 One, only one, unrivaled fair....

...first strophe, which disrupts every direct utterance. Consider the opening of what claims to be an ode; As once, if not with light regard I read aright that gifted bard This is more iffy and apologetic than the "Ode to Evening" with its initial stutter: "If aught of oaten...

...of the competition for the "magic girdle" in The Faerie Queene, but not before offering this caveat: "As once, if not with light regard / I read aright that gifted bard." Collins does not so much "read aright" as he rewrites what he reads. The next strophe continues in...

...knowledge. Collins's "Ode on the Poetical Character" begins with a reference to Spenser and his "school": As once, if not with light regard I read aright that gifted bard, 206 (Him whose school above the rest His loveliest Elfin Queen has blessed) . . . (lines 1-4) In his...