Thomas Gray Quotes
1716–1771 England
Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 – July 30, 1771) was an English poet, classical scholar, and professor of history at Cambridge University.
- England
- Poets
Also known as: Gray, Thomas
116 quotes
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
As to posterity, I may ask (with somebody whom I have forgot) what has it ever done to oblige me?
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!
Iron sleet of arrowy shower
Hurtles in the darkened air.
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire.
Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind.
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate,
Beneath the good how far,—but far above the great.
Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows.
Ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.
Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death?
And hie him home, at evening's close,
To sweet repast and calm repose.
Now my weary lips I close;
Leave me, leave me to repose!
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.
Attribution
Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Gray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.