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His Life, Mind and Art:
Thomas Gray, a born poet, fell upon an age of prose, who 'never spoke out in poetry', was born in Cornhill on December 26, 1716. His father Philip Gray was a prosperous scrivener, but rather temperamental and easily excitable. Thomas had a frail () health from his childhood that was much troubled at times by his father's harsh treatment of his mother.
Thomas was sent to Eton at the age of nine in 1725. He had there a very congenial time in reading and in the companionship of some promising boys, including Horace Walpole, with whom his friendship was long and (except a brief spell) lasting. His school-days at Eton were happy, indeed, and left a deep impression on his mind and temper. Infact, Eton, with its environmental (f ) charms and quiet beauty and ancient tradition, remained with him throughout his life. His Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College bears an apt testimony to this.
As a student:
Thomas Gray was serious and studious. He was of a scholarly temperament and scrupulously read the classics. In his student days, he started writing Latin verses with a considerable success. He became, as a result, a scholar at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he had gone from Eton.
But strangely enough, brilliant and scholarly Gray left his University, without taking a degree, in 1738, and set out early in 1739, on a prolonged tour with Walpole. That was a grand time for him, visiting different lands-France, Italy, Venice, and crossing the Alphs, and so on. After that tour, Gray returned to England in 1741. During his foreign tours, Gray, however, remained studious and acquired a good deal of knowledge in classical and modern art. On his return to England, he started living at his old college of Peterhouse. He decided to study law, of course, with a not very serious intention to take up eventually the legal profession.
Thereafter started a remarkable spell of creative activities for Gray. Along with his serious reading of law, he began to cultivate his poetic craft. The countryside of Buckingham shire inspired him to write his first remarkable poem Ode on Spring. That was followed by a succession of poems-Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Hymn to Adversity and Sonnet on the Death of Richard West.
Of course, those poems were occasioned by the death of his intimate friend, Richard West. He gave vent to his profound sorrow and sense of isolation in these poems, caused by that death.
But the poet in Gray was not at rest. His ambitious philosophical poem De Principis Cogitandi, that he had begën at Florence during his foreign tour, was finished, rich with the intensity of feeling and the spontaneity of expression. That was, however, the end of his Latin writing. In 1751 appeared his celebrated Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, with an instantaneous success. Gray became a name of fame in English poetry.
Gray's career as a poet:
Gray's poetic triumph continued with the publication of his two Pindaric Odes-The Progress of Poesy and The Bard. Those were his ambitious poetic projects definitely, but proved a bit intricate, and could not have the popular reception of his Elegy. Yet, his reputation as a poet remained laudable ), and he was offered the office of the poet-laureate , which, however, he humbly declined. His fine humorous poem, On the Death of a Favourite Cat, already written, did have much popularity.
Gray's career as a poet almost ceased after he was made the Professor of History at Cambridge in 1768. He wrote only a few poems thereafter. He expressed his gratitude to the Duke of Grafton in Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Grafton. His three poetic translations from Welsh and Icelandic originals-The Descent of Odin, The Fatal Sisters and The Triumph of Owen-were the products of the later period of his scholarship.
Two events in Gray's quiet life need be mentioned here. First, is his friendship with Henrietta Jane Speed. That was also a happy chapter of his life, and he wrote a gay and humorous poem-A Long Story-on that. Second, is the shift of his residence from Peterhouse, where he had been living long quietly, to Pembroke Hall, just across the street. Gray passed the remainder of his life there in his acccustomed way of reading, cultivating his little circle of friends, taking short tours and writing admirable letters.
Gray's health was never sound, and had been declining for some years. After a sudden illness, he died in his residence at Pembroke, on July 30, 1771, at the age of fifty-five. He was buried in the churchyard of Stokepoges. That was the life-story of a poet who did not try to glow but has remained glorious in literature.
Thomas Gray's mind-story was as sound and quiet as his life-story. He was a scholar-a scrupulous scholar-, but a silent one. He was, perhaps, the most well- read English man of his time. He read seriously the classics, and had profound knowledge in Greek and Latin literature. He was a serious student of history, and knew every branch, natural as well as civil, of the same. He was well acquainted with the celebrated historians of England, France and Italy. He was also conversant with science, as it was known then, not superficially , but rather thoroughly. In fact, the man in Gray was a scholar out and out, with a scholarly temperament. He studied deeply and seriously and wanted to know distinctly and completely. His scholarly temperament, again, made his temper reserve and meditative. He did not love the crowd of companionship, but had only a very few selected friends with whom he preferred to nurture friendship. Naturally, a secluded , rather than crowded, life was always preferable to him. He lived mostly all by himself-reading and thinking and writing. The contemplative bent of his mind was also made him rather pensive. Life was more a matter of sorrow and gloom to him than of joy and warmth. Like his own village-poet of the Elegy, he was a prey to melancholy-
"And melancholy mark'd him for her own." Yet, Gray was not narrow-minded. He had a broad and liberal outlook, with a mind that was sincere and sympathetic, like his village-poet's-
"Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere."
Gray was basically good-natured, and had a simple and shy way of life. He was least demonstrative and did not involve himself in all that drew audience and attention. His was a plain living of a modest man with high knowledge and thinking.
Above all, his poetic sensibility, tender but intense, was always active. The poet in him did not speak out much with glamour and glow. But he spoke with depth and truth and never misssed the joy and charm of good poetry.
Gray belonged to a crucial phase of transition in English poetry-from the poetry of the age of prose to the new poetry of romantic imagination and revelation under the leadership of Blake and Wordsworth. Along with Collins, Cowper and Goldsmith, he was not of the either side. His poetic craft grew under the shadow of the school of Pope. But his poetic maturity touches the essence of the age that was coming. The poetic talent in him could not subscribe totally to the old poetic craft of his time. At the same time, it could not consciously adjust itself to the new one.
In such a situation were cultivated Gray's poetic temper and creative inspiration. He was a born poet who fell upon an age of prose. That was an age in which the literary task was to strike and steer men's power of understanding and judgment, wit and intelligence, rather than their mind and soul, feeling and fancy. As a result, the poetry of that age was intellectual, ingenious and argumentative, but not intuitive, interpretative and imaginative. No doubt, it was all opulent with correctness and elegance in technique, but not at all straight with the sense of truth and beauty and the language of common life.
Gray had the spirit and temper, the soul and mind of a genuine poet. Naturally, he could not but feel isolated in his literary age that had called upon him what the poet in him could not entertain. The result of that was the scantiness of his poetic production, as so analytically pointed out by Matthew Arnold. If he had, like Burns and Blake, come some years later, during the French Revolution, he would have, in all probability, shown his poetic potency in plenty. Indeed, the poet in Gray vas born out of date, at a time, when his poetic spirit could not naturally flourish. nd so, as finely stated by Arnold, 'Gray never spoke out'.
Still, Gray's poetic world is not at all silent. The poet in him speaks out, may not be plentifully, yet intensely. to reveal his creativity as a poet, despite the adversity of his situation. To review and relish the merit of a true poet like him of an unpoetical age, is definitely a labour worth taking.
Gray's poetical works are generally taken as belonging to three different periods. His earliest poems, written about 1742, are not many. They include Ode on Spring, Sonnet on the Death of Richard West, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College and Hymn to Adversity. In them is heard the didactic tone of Augustan poetry, although in the poet's approach to nature, deep reflection, plaintive note and simple diction, they anticipate the romantic influence to come.
The second period contains his most celebrated poems, written between 1756 and 1757. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and two Pindaric Odes-7The Progress of Poesy and The Bard belong to this period. These poems show the maturity of his craft as also his leaning to approaching romanticism. In the poet's closeness to nature, stark humanism, deeply contemplative mood, personal revelation and sense of melancholy, the Elegy is truly a flower of romantic literature. In his presentation of themes, treatment of subjective feelings, interest in the past, imaginative and impulsive expression and poetical technique in the two Pindaric Odes, is perceived the awakening romantic sense of the poetry of the later half of the eighteenth century. These poems place Gray with the pre-cursors of romanticism that was to be dawned on English poetry with the publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798.
The third period of his poetical production marks his poetical translations from Welsh and Icelandic originals. These translations, the fruits of his scholarship and labour, are 7he Fatal Sisters, The Descent of Odin and The Triumph of Owen. Of course, the period includes one popular original poem from Gray-Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Grafton.
Gray's poetry, belonging to different periods, has diversities and types enough. Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat and A Long Story, belonging to his earlier period, are essentially playful and humorous. They smack, no doubt in a lighter mood, also the moralizing tone of Augustan poetry. His poems, Ode on Spring, Ode on Eton, Hymn to Adversity and Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, written in different times, are reflective and philosophical and steeped in the melancholy characteristic of their author. The Pindaric Odes treat the history of poetry and England. They are majestic in the grandeur of their themes and classical technique. Set in a frame of metre, which follows the strophe and the anti-strophe of Pindar, these poems, in their structure, movement and versification, mark, perhaps, the perfection of Gray's technique. His later poems-the translations from the remote Celtic and Scandinavian legends- bear out his studious effort to preserve the days long gone by.
As evident, Gray's poetical production embraces different poetical types-odes, sonnets, elegies, personal poetry, impersonal poetry, and so on. This testifies to the versatile nature of his creative power.
Gray's poetry, varied in temper and types, has certain specific features. These features, no doubt, reflect his relationship with existing Augustan poetry and anticipate ensuing Romantic poetry.
The first of these features is his interest in the world of Nature. This is, no doubt. a trend to the coming nature poetry of romanticism, already initiated in Thomson's The Seasons. Of course, Gray is not a philosopher of Nature. He is rather a painter of the serenity in the natural world. Here he seems closer to Matthew Arnold. The scenic charm of Nature, with soft and lulling sounds from distance, finds a vivid expression in his Elegy:
"Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds."
Gray's interest in Nature is not the only romantic trait of his poetry. Like the great romanticists, he is also a poet of man. Here his kinship with his fellow poets- Goldsmith and Cowper-is well noticed. His poems on Eton, On Adversity and the Elegy have human life as their theme.They clearly show his intense interest in and sympathy for humanity. The humanitarian zeal of his poetry is well heard in the Elegy-
"But knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
Chill penury repressed their noble rage,
And forze the genial current of the soul."
But Gray's theme on human life, as already indicated, are steeped in melancholy . A plaintive note hovers over his musing on man's life and fate, as clearly perceived in the poems-Ode on Spring, Ode on Eton, Ode on Adversity and Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Some lines may be quoted here from his famous Elegy to indicate the poet's profound sympathy for the tragic truth of human life.
"For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn;
Or busy houswife ply her evening care:
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or dimb his knees the envied kiss to share."
This melancholy note is romantic, so distinctly heard in Shelley, Keats and Wordsworth. Though Arnold has not extolled enough Gray's poetry, 'the high seriousness of poetry', so much propagated by him, is in it, in a large measure. Gray's poetry is deep in thought and contains the matters of much seriousness. All his poems, except a few lighter ones, speak seriously of man-his life and fortune, his joy and sorrow. His meditation in Ode to Spring, Ode on Eton and Elegy reveals the serious and unfailing truth of life that the true poet must give out:
Alas, regardless of their doom
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond today. (Ode on Eton)
Or,
Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death? (The Elegy)
This is the criticism of life in poetry, which Arnold takes as the definition of poetry. Gray shows enough what man knows and does and what he ought to know and does. In his poem, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, the poet watches the boys at play, totally ignorant and careless of the misfortune and tragedies that are to befall them in no time. Their hard fate is inevitable, yet, it is better that they do not know it, and Gray gives out his message, too true to be denied:
"Where ignorance is bliss. "
Tis folly to be wise."
And equally pointed is his message in his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
This is, no doubt, the didacticism of Augustan poetry. Nevertheless it is a criticism of life the matter of high seriousness in poetry. Gray's poetry is found intensely alive of the function of poetry. This is undeniable.
The note of subjectivity is a feature of romantic literature. In all the Odes of Gray, perhaps excepting The Bard, his personal feeling is present. He is seldom out of his poetry. His personal touches are clearly conceived and presented, in fact, in most of his poems.
Gray's poetry has not the exuberance of the romantic emotion or imagination, as seen in Shelley, Byron and Keats. But emotion is always there in his poetry, an d it is deep and clear, though never overflowing. The restraint of Augustan poetry seems to go with the personal feeling of romantic poetry.
Gray's imagery is an asset of his poetry. Even Dr. Johnson has to admit unequivocally-" The Elegy abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo." Gray's proficiency in imagery is confirmed, too, in his poems-Ode on Spring, Ode on Eton, Ode on Adversity and Pindaric Odes. Here, again, Augustan restraint seems active in him.
Finally comes Gray's technique-his structure and poetic diction and versification. A methodical structure, a happy selection of poetic diction and a musical sweetness of versification combine perfectly to accord Gray a high position among the English poets. He is, perhaps, the most accomplished craftsman in the transition from the classical period to the romantic in the history of English literature. His poetry seems to preserve, to the greatest possible extent, his own precept on the poetic style that is to be extremely concise in expression yet pure, perspicuous and musical. Arnold has paid here an unqualified tribute to his poetic style-".
Gray reached the excellence in style which he aimed at. While the evolution also of such a piece as The Progress of Poesy must be accounted not less noble and sound than its style." Gray has not written much. Yet, his poetry has rapture for all the generations of readers. 'A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray' is heard. He is raised, along with Collins, to the rank of the greatest poets of the eighteenth century. In the opinion of a critic, "Gray joins to the sublimity of Milton, elegance and harmony of Pope, and nothing is wanting to render him, perhaps, the first poet in the English language, but to have written a little more". Another critic has a decisive observation-"Of all the English poets, he was the most finished artist. He attained the highest degree of splendour of which poetical style seemed to be capable". This is the truth of the poet in Gray:
"..... a Homer's fire in Milton's strains
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray." 11
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