1747 in poetry

Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature (for instance, Irish or France).

Alas! regardless of their doom,

The little victims play;

No sense have they of ills to come,

Nor care beyond to-day:

* * *
Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies?

Thought would destroy their Paradise.
No more;—where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise.

— Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (full text here)