In 1742 Gray wrote his Ode to Spring, Ode on Eton College, and Hymns to Adversity, and began the Elegy in a Country Church yard, though the latter was not pub lished until 1751. In 1753 his mother died. Two years later the Progress of Poesy and The Bard were published, and added to the already great reputation won for the poet by the Elegy.