Thomas Gray
Born	December 26, 1716(1716-12-26) Cornhill, London, England
Died	July 30, 1771 Cambridge, England
Occupation	Poet, historian

Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 – July 30, 1771), was an English poet, classical scholar and professor of Cambridge University. He was born in Cornhill, London, the son of an exchange broker and a milliner. He was the fifth of eight children and the only child in his family to survive infancy. He lived with his mother after she left his abusive father. He was educated at Eton College where his uncle was one of the masters. He recalled his schooldays as a time of great happiness, as is evident in his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. Gray was a delicate and naturally scholarly boy who spent his time reading great literature and avoiding athletics. Probably fortunately for himself, he was able to live in his uncle’s household rather than in college. He made three close friends: Horace Walpole, son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, Thomas Ashton and Richard West. The four of them prided themselves on their sense of style, their sense of humour and their appreciation of beauty. Thomas Gray was an English poet, classical scholar and professor of Cambridge University. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events August 5 - In the Battle of Peterwardein 40. ... Cornhill is one of the principal streets of the City of London, the historic nucleus of modern London. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the city in England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about work. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... This article is about the occupation of studying history. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events August 5 - In the Battle of Peterwardein 40. ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Cornhill is one of the principal streets of the City of London, the historic nucleus of modern London. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Kings College of Our Lady of Eton beside Windsor, commonly known as Eton College or just Eton, is a public school (privately funded and independent) for boys, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, north of Windsor Castle, and... Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, more commonly known as Horace Walpole, (September 24, 1717 – March 2, 1797), was a politician, writer and forerunner of the Gothic revival. ... Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (commonly known as Robert Walpole, or Sir Robert Walpole) KG, KB, PC (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745) was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... Richard West may refer to: Richard West, 7th Baron De La Warr Richard West (Lord Chancellor of Ireland), an Irish politician and lawyer in the eighteenth century Richard West (keyboardist), member of the UK band Threshold. ...

In 1734, Gray went to Cambridge. At first he stayed in Pembroke College, moving to Peterhouse, but he found the curriculum dull. He wrote letters to his friends listing all the things he disliked: the masters (mad with Pride) and the Fellows (sleepy, drunken, dull, illiterate Things.) Supposedly he was intended for the law, but in fact he spent his time as an undergraduate reading classical and modern literature and playing Vivaldi and Scarlatti on the harpsichord for relaxation. In 1738 he accompanied his old school-friend Horace Walpole on his Grand Tour, probably at Walpole's expense. They fell out and parted in Tuscany because Walpole wanted to attend fashionable parties and Gray wanted to visit all the antiquities. However, they were reconciled a few years later. This article is about the city in England. ... There are several Pembroke Colleges: Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College, Oxford This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Vivaldi (March 4, 1678, Venice – July 28, 1741, Vienna), nicknamed Il Prete Rosso, meaning The Red Priest, was an Italian priest and baroque music composer. ... Baroque musicians: Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... For other uses, see Grand Tour (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Tuscany (disambiguation). ...

He began seriously writing poems in 1742, mainly after his close friend Richard West died. He moved to Cambridge and began a self-imposed programme of literary study, becoming one of the most learned men of his time, though he claimed to be lazy by inclination. He became a Fellow first of Peterhouse, and later of Pembroke College, Cambridge. It is said that the change of college was the result of a practical joke: Terrified of fire, he had installed a metal bar by his window on the top floor of the Burrough’s building at Peterhouse, so that in the event of a fire he could tie his sheets to it and climb to safety. One night undergraduates decided to play a prank and shouted “fire”. Gray climbed down from his window, landing in a barrel of water placed beneath.^{[citation needed]} It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ... Full name Peterhouse Motto - Named after St Peter Previous names The Scholars of the Bishop of Ely St Peter’s College Established 1284 Sister College(s) Merton College Master The Lord Wilson of Tillyorn Location Trumpington Street Undergraduates 253 Postgraduates 125 Homepage Boatclub The chapel cloisters, through which Old Court... Full name Pembroke College Motto - Named after Countess of Pembroke, Mary de St Pol Previous names Marie Valence Hall (1347), Pembroke Hall (?), Pembroke College (1856) Established 1347 Sister College(s) Queens College Master Sir Richard Dearlove Location Trumpington Street Undergraduates ~420 Postgraduates ~240 Homepage Boatclub Pembroke College is a... Full name Peterhouse Motto - Named after St Peters Church (now little St Marys Church) Previous names - Established 1284 Sister College Merton College Master The Lord Wilson of Tillyron Location Trumpington Street Undergraduates 271 Graduates 128 Homepage Boatclub Peterhouse is the oldest college in the University of Cambridge. ...

Gray spent most of his life as a scholar in Cambridge, and only later in his life did he begin travelling again. Although he was one of the least productive poets (his collected works published during his lifetime amount to less than 1,000 lines), he is regarded as the predominant poetic figure of the mid-18th century. In 1757, he was offered the post of Poet Laureate, which he refused. In 1768, he succeeded Lawrence Brockett as Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, a sinecure. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... 1757 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... A Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events. ... 1768 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Lawrence Brockett (1725-1768) was the youngest of five sons born to Lawrence Brockett and Anne Birkbeck. ... Regius Professor of Modern History is one of the senior professorships in history at Cambridge University. ... A sinecure (from Latin sine, without, and cura, care) means an office which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. ...

Gray was so self critical and fearful of failure that he only published thirteen poems during his lifetime, and once wrote that he feared his collected works would be mistaken for the works of a flea. Gray’s friend Walpole said that He never wrote anything easily but things of Humour, and this is evident in the mock elegy he wrote to commemorate the death by drowning of Walpole’s cat, Ode on the death of a favourite Cat, drowned in a tub of Gold fishes. Walpole later displayed the fatal china vase on a pedestal at his house in Strawberry Hill. Gray’s surviving letters also show his sharp observation and his playful sense of humour.

Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (written 1750 , published Feb 1751 by Dodsley), believed to have been written in the churchyard of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, was a literary sensation when it was published and has become a lasting contribution to English literary heritage. Its reflective, calm and stoic tone was greatly admired, and it was pirated, imitated, quoted and translated into Latin and Greek. It is still one of the most popular and most frequently quoted poems in the English language. Before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited it to his officers, adding: "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem than take Quebec tomorrow". The poem's famous depiction of an "ivy-mantled tow'r" could be a reference to the early-mediaeval St Laurence's Church in Upton, Slough. Stoke Poges is a village in Buckinghamshire, England. ... Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is one of the home counties in South East England. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Combatants Kingdom of Great Britain Kingdom of France Commanders James Wolfe â€  Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm â€  Strength 4,800 regulars 4,000 regulars 300 militia Casualties 658 dead or wounded 644 dead or wounded The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was a pivotal battle in the North American theatre... Major General Wolfe. ... Nickname: Motto: Don de Dieu feray valoir (I shall put Gods gift to good use; the Don de Dieu was Champlains ship) Coordinates: , Country Province Agglomeration Quebec City Statute of the city Capitale-Nationale Administrative Region Capitale-Nationale Founded 1608 by Samuel de Champlain Constitution date 1833 Government... One of three churches in the modern parish of Upton-cum-Chalvey, Saint Laurences Church is the oldest building in the borough of Slough, in Berkshire. ... Upton was a village, and is now a suburb of the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire. ...

Gray combined traditional forms and poetic diction with new topics and modes of expression and may be considered as a classically focussed precursor of the romantic revival. Romantics redirects here. ...

Tomb of Thomas Gray in Stoke Poges Churchyard

The Elegy was recognised immediately for its beauty and skill, and the Churchyard Poets are so named because they wrote in the shadow of Gray's great poem. It contains many outstanding phrases which have entered the common English lexicon, either on their own or as referenced in other works. A few of these include: Image File history File links Graygrave. ... Image File history File links Graygrave. ... Churchyard Poets or Graveyard Poets is a critical term applied in retrospect to a number of English poets of the 1750s to the 1790s who wrote in the vein of Thomas Grays Elegy in a Country Churchyard (1750). ...

• "Far from the madding crowd"

• "The paths of glory"

• "Celestial fire"

• "The unlettered muse"

• "Kindred spirit"

Gray also wrote light verse, such as Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes, concerning Horace Walpole's cat, which had recently died trying to fish goldfish out of a bowl. After setting the scene with the couplet "What female heart can gold despise? What cat's averse to fish?", the poem moves to its multiple proverbial conclusion: "a fav'rite has no friend", "[k]now one false step is ne'er retrieved" and ""nor all that glisters, gold". Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, more commonly known as Horace Walpole, (September 24, 1717 – March 2, 1797), was a politician, writer and forerunner of the Gothic revival. ...

He is also well known for his statement that "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," from his 1742 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.

Gray himself considered that his two Pindaric odes, The Progress of Poesy and The Bard, were his best works. Pindaric odes are written with great fire and passion, unlike the calmer and more reflective Horatian odes such as Ode on a distant Prospect of Eton College. The Bard tells of a wild Welsh poet cursing Edward I after the conquest of Wales and prophesying in detail the downfall of the house of Plantagenet. It is very melodramatic, and ends with the bard hurling himself to his death from the top of a mountain. Edward I; illustration from Cassells History of England circa 1902. ... This article is about the country. ... Angevin is the name applied to two distinct medieval dynasties which originated as counts (from 1360, dukes) of the western French province of Anjou (of which angevin is the adjectival form), but later came to rule far greater areas including England, Hungary and Poland (see Angevin Empire). ...

When his duties allowed, Gray travelled widely throughout Britain to places like Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Scotland in search of picturesque scenery and ancient monuments. These things were not generally valued in the early eighteenth century, when the popular taste ran to classical styles in architecture and literature and people liked their scenery tame and well-tended. Some people have seen Gray’s writings on this topic, and the Gothic details that appear in his Elegy and The Bard as the first foreshadowing of the Romantic movement that dominated the early nineteenth century, when William Wordsworth and the other Lake poets had taught people to value the picturesque, the sublime and the Gothic. Look up Classical in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Strawberry Hill, an English villa in the Gothic revival style, built by seminal Gothic writer Horace Walpole Gothic fiction is an important genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. ... Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe. ... Wordsworth, an underground hip hop MC from Brooklyn. ...

Interestingly, however, Gray's connection to Wordsworth is vexed. In the 1800 Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, it is Gray's "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West" which Wordsworth singles out to exemplify what he finds most objectionable in poetry. He even goes so far as to castigate West as "at the head of those who by their reasonings have attempted to widen the space of separation betwixt Prose and Metrical composition, and was more than any other man curiously elaborate in the structure of his own poetic diction."

When Gray died in 1771, he was buried beside his mother in the graveyard of the church in Stoke Poges which was the setting for his Elegy. His grave can still be seen there today. There is a plaque in Cornhill, marking the place where he was born.

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Thomas Gray

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Thomas Gray

• The Thomas Gray Archive, ed. by Alexander Huber
• Luminarium: Thomas Gray Life, extensive works, essays, study resources
• Works by Thomas Gray at Project Gutenberg