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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

Random Thomas Gray quote

116 quotes

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
With many a foul and midnight murder fed.

The Bard (1757)

Far from the sun and summer-gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid.

The Progress of Poesy (1754)

When iron scourge, and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best.

The meanest floweret of the vale,
The simplest note that swells the gale,
The common sun, the air, the skies,
To him are open paradise.

Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitudes (1754)

The social smile, the sympathetic tear.

Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

In climes beyond the solar road.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)

Now as the Paradisiacal pleasures of the Mahometans consist in playing upon the flute and lying with Houris, be mine to read eternal new romances of Marivaux and Crebillon.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)

Their name, their years, spelt by th’ unletter’d muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.

The verse adorn again
Fierce War, and faithful Love,
And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.

The Bard (1757)

They had finished her own crown in glory, and she couldn't stay away from the coronation.

Hard Unkindness' alter'd eye,
That mocks the tear it forced to flow.

Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.

Yet, ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750)

Thou tamer of the human breast,
Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour
The bad affright, afflict the best!

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.

Ode on the Pleasure Arising from Vicissitude (1754)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Thomas Gray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.