Thomas Gray (1716-1771)

You may not have heard the name Thomas Gray before, but you've definitely heard the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. Well, we can thank Thomas Gray and his poem 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College' (1747) for that one!

Despite notoriously disliking his own work and only publishing thirteen poems during his lifetime, Thomas Gray was a highly successful and acclaimed poet. He was even offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1757, which he refused.

Although Gray wrote his poetry during the Neoclassical era, his work is often considered to bridge the gap between the Neoclassical and Romantic eras.

Let's take a closer look at the poet known as Thomas Gray, his life, writing, and famous works!

Thomas Gray biography

Thomas Gray was an English writer and scholar who lived between 1716 and 1771. Gray was born in 1716 to Philip Gray and Dorothy Antrobus in Cornhill, London. Although Gray's family were well-off, his home life was troubled. Gray was technically the fifth of twelve children; however, he was the only child of Philip Gray and Dorothy Antrobus to survive until adulthood. Gray's father was abusive. Although his mother tried to leave their relationship, she eventually returned and remained married to Philip Gray until his death.

At age eight, Thomas Gray began to attend Eton College in Berkshire, where two of his maternal uncles worked; Robert and William Antrobus. In his later life, Gray wrote 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College' (1747), reflecting on his time at Eton.

Upon completing his secondary education, Gray went on to study at Cambridge Univerity in 1734. Gray left Cambridge without a degree in 1738. The following year, Gray travelled around Europe with Thomas Walpole before settling in Cambridge in 1742.

In 1742, Gray's close friend Richard West died. It is believed that this was one of the factors which contributed to Gray beginning to write and later publish poetry. Upon his return to Cambridge, Gray became a Fellow of Peterhouse and later Pembroke college.

Gray changed colleges after a prank was played on him by fellow students at Peterhouse. It was well-known that Gray had a fear of fire, and because of it, he ensured that he could easily escape out of his bedroom window if one ever occurred. A group of students raised the fire alarm, and Gray swiftly escaped out of his window only to find himself in a cold tub of water which had been placed below!

Thomas Gray's most famous work, 'The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,' was completed in 1750 and published in 1751 by English publisher and writer Robert Dodsley.

In 1762, following the death of Hallett Turner, the position of Regius chair of Modern History at Cambridge came available. Although Gray did not secure this position in 1762, he later claimed it in 1768.

On July 30th, 1771, Gray died in Cambridge. He was buried in St Giles' churchyard.

Thomas Gray writing style

We mentioned earlier that Thomas Gray's work and writing style is often considered to bridge the gap between the Neoclassical and Romantic eras. This is mainly because while Gray utilised traditional poetic forms and structures, the content of his poems shifted away from the expectations of Neoclassical literature. Rather than discussing broad topics such as politics or society, Thomas Gray's work was heavily influenced by his own private thoughts, acting as an exploration of the self. The exploration of the self is a common feature of the Romantic era.

Gray's work can be grouped in with the 'Graveyard poets', who wrote during the late 18th century. The 'Graveyard' poets used Gothic imagery in their work and commonly discussed the themes of mortality and the finality of death. These themes dominated Thomas' work, perhaps because he began writing after the death of his close friend Richard West.

As noted, Gray utilised traditional poetic forms in his work; Pindaric odes, Horatian odes, and elegies. An ode is a poem that addresses a certain subject, while an elegy is a poem that traditionally mourns the dead. Although an elegy is a more obvious form when writing about death, both of these forms allowed Gray to focus his work on such a theme. For instance, Gray's poem 'Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes' (1747) addresses the subject of Selima the cat, who gave into her desire to eat a goldfish in a fish tank and dried trying.

Thomas Gray bibliography

Thomas Gray wrote a surprisingly small number of poems during his lifetime, especially when we consider how famous his works are! The reason that Gray's bibliography is as small as it is is because he was highly critical of his writing. For instance, in a letter to Horace Walpole, dated February 25th 1768, Gray wrote that he worried his works would be 'mistaken for the works of a flea'¹

Thomas Gray books

Although today Gray is best known for his works of poetry, according to the University of Cambridge, Gray was 'renowned for his scholarship' while alive. William Johnson Temple, a close friend of Gray's, considered Gray 'the most learned man in Europe'.²

Thomas Gray's Commonplace book, a notebook in which academics traditionally compile knowledge, is available through the University of Cambridge Digital Library. During his studies, Gray made initial notes in the margins of books he read and in smaller notebooks before writing them in a formal style in his Commonplace book.

Gray's Commonplace books consist of three volumes, which were gifted to Pembroke College in 1809.

Gray's essays have also been collected into books such as Thomas James Mathias' The Works of Thomas Gray (1814) and Clark Sutherland Northup's Essays and Criticisms by Thomas Gray (1911).

Thomas Gray poems summary

Fig. 1 - Thomas Gray attended Eton College during his youth

It was in this poem that Thomas Gray coined the phrase 'ignorance is bliss'. The phrase appears in the final stanza of the poem, in which Gray writes;

'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751)

Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' discusses the themes of life, death, and the afterlife. This poem is set in a churchyard. Throughout the poem, the narrator considers the ordinary people who are now buried there, he considers their past lives and his own mortality.

Fig. 2 - In 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' the narrator considers the lives and deaths of ordinary people.

The narrator acknowledges that those buried in the graveyard would have lived average lives. Even though these people were not wealthy or famous, their lives held the same level of meaning and ambition as anyone else. For instance, within the poem, Gray questions;

These rhetorical questions highlight how no matter how privileged you are in life, you are the same as anyone else in death. Someone's wealth or prestige can not bring them back to life.