The English Poems

Introduction Note on the Text Bibliography Chronology Poems by Mr Gray (1768) Ode on the Spring Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College Hymn to Adversity The Progress of Poesy The Bard The Fatal Sisters The Descent of Odin The Triumphs of Owen Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard from Six Poems by Mr T Gray (1753) A Long Story Ode For Music On L[or]d H[olland']s Seat Near M[argat]e, K[en]t Appendix Stanza's wrote in a country church-yard (The Eton Manuscript) Poems Published Posthumously Agrippina, a Tragedy Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West Hymn to Ignorance The Alliance of Education and Government Stanzas to Mr. Bentley Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude Epitaph on Mrs Clerke Epitaph on a Child Epitaph on Mrs Mason Epitaph on Sir William Williams [Sketch of His Own Character] [The Death of Hoel] [Caradoc] [Conan] The Candidate Verses from Shakespeare [Song I] [Song II] Satire on the Heads of Houses [Tophet] [Invitation to Mason] [Couplet about Birds] [Parody on an Epitaph] [Impromptus] [Lines on Dr Robert Smith] Lines written at Burnham Lines on the Accession of George III [Lines Spoken by the Ghost of John Dennis
at the Devil Tavern] The Characters of the Christ-Cross Row, by a Critic, to Mrs - - Verse Fragments Translations Translation from Dante, Inferno Canto xxxiii 1-78 Translation from Statius, Thebaid VI 646-88, 704-24 Translation from Statius, Thebaid IX 319-26 Translation from Tasso, Gerusalemme Liberata, 
Cto 14, St. 32. Imitated from Propertius. Lib: 2: Eleg: 1. Imitated from Propertius. Lib: 3: Eleg: 5. Notes

Thomas Gray was born in London, in a house on Cornhill in the City of London, on 26 December 1716. His grandfather had been a successful merchant, but his father took up work as a money-scrivener - a loan-broker in modern parlance - and was not too successful. In fact, when his father died, the family was left in somewhat straitened circumstances. The younger Gray was however educated at Eton, where he was to meet young men who were to be important to him in later life, such as Richard West - subject of an Epitaph by Gray, and son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland - and Horace Walpole - author of The Castle of Otranto and creator of the magnificent mock-Gothic house, Strawberry Hill - who was later to publish some of Gray's work. In 1734 Gray went up to Cambridge, and maintained a lengthy correspondence with West who was at Christ Church, Oxford. Both men decided that they would take up the Law; West entered the Inner Temple in 1738 and Gray intended to do likewise, but decided instead to accept Walpole's invitation to accompany him on his Grand Tour. Gray's pleasure at being involved in this enterprise was tempered by a significant falling-out between the young men, which occasioned the poet's return to England, and a lengthy estrangement between the two men. Gray's father passed away only shortly after his return from the Continent. Gray then returned to Cambridge and studied for a degree in Civil Law. It is hard to date Gray's real beginnings as a poet, notwith-standing the existence of at least one poem from 1734, but he certainly wrote his Epitaph for Gray in 1742, and appears to have written the 'Ode on the Spring' before West's death, while visiting his mother at Stoke Poges. The 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College' dates from 1742, as does the 'Hymn to Adversity'. The 'Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat' dates from 1747, the poor cat being Walpole's. Gray continued to live in Cambridge for the rest of his days, apart from a brief sojourn in