“Comus and his midnight crew.”
Ode for Music http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=ocmu (1769), line 2
Thomas Gray was an English poet, letter-writer, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751.Gray was an extremely 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, though he declined. His writing is largely considered to be pre-Romantic. Wikipedia
“Comus and his midnight crew.”
Ode for Music http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=ocmu (1769), line 2
“Grim-visaged comfortless Despair.”
St. 7
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)
“When love could teach a monarch to be wise,
And gospel-light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes.”
Education and Government; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
St. 22
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
“The verse adorn again
Fierce War, and faithful Love,
And Truth severe, by fairy Fiction drest.”
III. 3. lines 125-127
The Bard (1757)
St. 6
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
St. 2
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)
"The Triumphs of Owen. A Fragment", from Mr. Evans's Specimens of the Welch Poetry (1764)
“And weep the more, because I weep in vain.”
Sonnet, On the Death of Mr. West; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
St. 8
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
“Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.”
St. 20
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
“What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?”
St. 4
On the Death of a Favourite Cat http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odfc (1747)
“Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.”
St. 4
Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec (written 1742–1750)
“No dolphin came, no Nereid stirred;
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard.
A favourite has no friend!”
St. 6
On the Death of a Favourite Cat http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odfc (1747)
“Each in his narrow cell forever laid,
The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep.”
St. 4
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
St. 11
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
The Epitaph, St. 2
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)
St. 2
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)