Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Thomas Graywas an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 December 1716
solitude sorrow form
Sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind.
age vices fame
One principal characteristic of vice in the present age is the contempt of fame.
spring wings taste
The insect-youth are on the wing, Eager to taste the honied spring, And float amid the liquid noon!
life pain fate
Man's feeble race what ills await! Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, And Death, sad refuge from the storms of Fate!
spring cuckoos harmony
The Attic warbler pours her throat, Responsive to the cuckoo's note, The untaught harmony of spring.
eye sky long
The time will come, when thou shalt lift thine eyes To watch a long-drawn battle in the skies. While aged peasants, too amazed for words, Stare at the flying fleets of wondrous birds.
solitude crowds strife
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
lying funeral deceit
Low on his funeral couch he lies!
friendship heaven soul
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, Heaven did a recompense as largely send: He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear, He gained from Heav'n ('t was all he wish'd) a friend.
winning night light
From toil he wins his spirits light, From busy day the peaceful night; Rich, from the very want of wealth, In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.
dumb cheerful looks
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?
wind darkness tolls
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
love wise eye
When love could teach a monarch to be wise, And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.
pain childhood innocence
Where once my careless childhood strayed, / A stranger yet to pain.