Thomas Gray — English Poetry Library

English Poetry Library

Thomas Gray1716–177118th century Thomas Gray was an English poet, letter-writer, and classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751. Gray was a self-critical writer who published only 13 poems in his lifetime, despite being very popular. He was even offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1757 after the death of Colley Cibber, though he declined.

Poems

150 poems

102. Luke quotes Spenser, _Ruines of Rome_, st. 28:79 lines
11 LIFE OF GRAY.65 lines
122. The MS. has "Yet never can he fear a vulgar fate."87 lines
16. Nevil Payne's _Fatal Jealousy_ (1673).5 lines
17. Cf. Virgil, _Geo._ iv. 274:18 lines
19. Susanna Centlivre's _The Busie Body_ (1709).10 lines
2. Cf. Lady M. W. Montagu, _Town Eclogues_:24 lines
21. Cf. Lucretius, iii. 894:56 lines
26. Charles Macklin's _The Man of the World_ (1792).4 lines
40. The 1st ed. has "Not all that strikes," etc.6 lines
47. Mitford quotes Ovid, _Ep._ v. 86:38 lines
49. Hurd quotes Cowley:8 lines
49. Wakefield quotes Milton, _P. L._ v. 3:23 lines
51. Cf. Dryden, _Sebastian_, i. 1:146 lines
52. Gray refers to Cowley, _Brutus_:37 lines
63. Mitford quotes Tickell:6 lines
66. Mitford quotes Spenser, _F. Q._:41 lines
68. Cf. Shakes. _Hen. V._ iii. 3:9 lines
7. Cf. Pope, _Hor. Epist._ ii. 2, 171:125 lines
70. Ovid, _Met._ viii. 162, describes the Mæander thus:16 lines
75. Wakefield quotes Pope, _Epitaph on Fenton_:67 lines
81. Hales quotes Collins, _Ode to Simplicity_:131 lines
99. Cf. Milton, _P. L._ v. 428:27 lines
99. Cf. Prior, _Ep. to Montague_, st. 9:6 lines
A NOTE ON THE TEXTS17 lines
A PRACTISER IN PHYSIC.38 lines
About Google Book Search9 lines
Advertisement.8 lines
ADVISORY EDITORS95 lines
AN117 lines
AN ELDERLY LADY.26 lines
AN ELEGY TO AN OLD BEAUTY.69 lines
AN ITINERANT MUSICIAN.9 lines
ANACREON, ODE NINTH.45 lines
ANACREONTIC.68 lines
AT BURY ASSIZES.11 lines
AUTUMN.46 lines
BOOK I. ODE XXII.25 lines
BOOK II. ODE IX.25 lines
BT JOHN MITFORD.23 lines
BY TRIE9 lines
Cf. Shakes. 1 _Hen. VI._ ii. 4:10 lines
Country Church Yard.4 lines
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD.131 lines
EPITAPH FOR MR HOGARTH.5 lines
FROM THE MEDEA OF EURIPIDES.21 lines
Hales quotes Waller's42 lines
How picturesque the following--20 lines
Hurd compares Cowley:45 lines
HYMN TO ADVERSITY.59 lines
I. 1.14 lines
I. 2.21 lines
I. 3.20 lines
II. 1.14 lines
II. 2.14 lines
II. 3.21 lines
III. 1.14 lines
III. 2.14 lines
III. 3.22 lines
In the 21st we have "fame and _epitaph_ supply."62 lines
INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SPOKEN BY A LADY WHO WAS TO PERSONATE 'THE GHOST48 lines
IV LIFE OP GRAY.61 lines
Jamque et Here pio Vesuvina inoendia oantu5 lines
JOHN LOFTIS38 lines
JOHNSON'S POEMS.70 lines
LIB. IV. ODE VII. TRANSLATED.29 lines
LIFE OF GRAY, IX4 lines
LIFE OF GRAY.25 lines
LIFE OF GRAY. VU64 lines
LIFE OF GRAY. XIX30 lines
LIFE OF GRAY. XV31 lines
LIFE OF GRAY. XXI33 lines
LIFE OF GRAY. XXV30 lines
LIFE OP GRAY. . XVU62 lines
LIFE OP GRAY. XI93 lines
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.26 lines
M.DCCC.LUL4 lines
MIDSUMMER.29 lines
Numbers 1-4 out of print.11 lines
ODE ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE CAT.28 lines
ODE ON THE SPRING.149 lines
OF A SPEECH OF AQUILEIO IN THE 'ADRIANO' OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING, 'TU14 lines
OF AN AIR IN THE 'CLEMENZA DE TITO' OF METASTASIO, BEGINNING, 'DEH! SE7 lines
OF PART OF THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE.--FROM THE SIXTH32 lines
OF PROVERBS, CHAP. IV. VERSES 6-11.19 lines
OF THE TWO FIRST STANZAS OF THE SONG 'RIO VERDE, RIO VERDE,' PRINTED6 lines
ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON COLLEGE.107 lines
ON GEORGE II. AND COLLEY CIBBER, ESQ.5 lines
ON HEARING MISS THRALE CONSULTING WITH A FRIEND ABOUT A GOWN AND HAT5 lines
ON HER BIRTHDAY.20 lines
ON HER COMPLETING HER THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR. AN IMPROMPTU.19 lines
ON HER PLAYING UPON A HARPSICHORD IN A ROOM HUNG WITH FLOWER-PIECES OF38 lines
ON SEEING A BUST OF MRS MONTAGUE.7 lines
ON SIR THOMAS HANMER, BART.46 lines
ON THE MODERN VERSIFICATION OF ANCIENT LEGENDARY5 lines
ON THE SPRING.97 lines
ONE AND TWENTY.30 lines
PAGE13 lines
PASTORAL I.26 lines
PLAYING ON THE SPINNET.21 lines
POEMS.7 lines
PREFACE.86 lines
PRINTED IN THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, 1743.35 lines
Publication Number 314 lines
ROBERT EARL OF OXFORD AND EARL MORTIMER.41 lines
SapphioOde: To Mr. West '1834 lines
SELECT POEMS OF THOMAS GRAY.12 lines
Shakes. _M. of V._ ii. 7:9 lines
SMOLLETT'S POEMS.13 lines
SONG.29 lines
SONNET.14 lines
SPOKEN BY MR GARRICK BEFORE THE 'MASQUE OF COMUS,'39 lines
SPOKEN BY MR GARRICK, AT THE OPENING OF THE67 lines
SPRING.41 lines
Statu Sylr. IV. It. 78.*19 lines
STELLA IN MOURNING.17 lines
STOKE-POGIS.66 lines
The 15th stanza reads thus:129 lines
The 32d and last stanza is as follows:29 lines
The 5th stanza is as follows: .63 lines
THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY6 lines
THE BARD.140 lines
The Candidate 1634 lines
THE ELECTRICIAN.24 lines
THE EPITAPH.13 lines
The Fatal Sisters64 lines
The fourth bears this inscription:52 lines
The Life and Poetry of Thomas Gray20 lines
The Progress of Poesy124 lines
The second is from the Ode:17 lines
The third is again from the _Elegy_:8 lines
THE YOUNG AUTHOR.38 lines
THOMAS GRAY.34 lines
TO A FRIEND.30 lines
TO GOLDSMITH'S COMEDY OF 'THE GOOD-NATURED MAN,' 1769.31 lines
TO MR POPE.10 lines
TO STELLA.23 lines
TO THE COMEDY OF 'A WORD TO THE WISE,' SPOKEN BY25 lines
TO THE SAME.29 lines
Vi LIFE OF GffcAY.30 lines
Warton wanted to have this line read135 lines
We may quote also his _Vision of Sir Launfal_:65 lines
WRITTEN AT THE BEQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN TO WHOM A16 lines
WRITTEN IN RIDICULE OF CERTAIN POEMS PUBLISHED9 lines
WRITTEN UNDER A PRINT REPRESENTING PERSONS SKAITING.5 lines
X LIFE OF GEAY.31 lines
XIV LIFE OF GRAY.30 lines
XVI LIFE OF GRAY.34 lines
XXIV LIFE OF GRAY.30 lines
XZH LIFE OF GRAY.63 lines