Selections from the Poetry and Prose of Thomas Gray |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
admire Æolian Bard Bartholin beautiful called Cambridge death Descent of Odin Dodsley Dryden edition Edward Elegy English essay Eton Eton College eyes famous Fatal Sisters fate friends Gosse Gray wrote Gray's letters Gray's note Hávamál Henry Hervarar Saga hill Horace Walpole Icelandic interesting Introduction King Lady lake London Lord lyre miles Milton Mitford mountains never o'er Odin Old Norse original OSSIAN passage PEMBROKE HALL Peterhouse Petrarch Pindaric Pindaric Odes pleasure poet Poetic Edda poetry printed Progress of Poesy prose Prose Edda published Quarto quotes Richard West rocks Romantic Romanticism round Runic says seen Shakespeare side Six Poems Skiddaw song Sonnet soul spirit stanza style taste thee Thomas Bartholin Thomas Gray thou thro Torfæus translation vale verse volume Waking of Angantyr Welsh Wharton wild WILLIAM MASON Wind wood words writing written ΙΟ
Popular passages
Page 39 - Fair laughs the Morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While proudly riding o'er the azure realm In gallant trim the gilded Vessel goes : Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm : Regardless of the sweeping Whirlwind's sway, That hush'd in grim repose expects his evening prey.
Page 19 - Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind, The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Page 133 - Over thy decent shoulders drawn. Come, but keep thy wonted state, With even step and musing gait And looks commercing with the skies, Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes...
Page 4 - Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen Full many a sprightly race Disporting on thy margent green The paths of pleasure trace...
Page 16 - The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 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...
Page 20 - E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead, Dost in these lines their artless tale relate; If chance, by lonely contemplation led, Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate, Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, 'Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, To meet the sun upon the upland lawn...
Page 17 - 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.
Page 81 - But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up...
Page 4 - The limits of their little reign And unknown regions dare descry: Still as they run they look behind, They hear a voice in every wind, And snatch a fearful joy. Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, Less pleasing when possest; The tear forgot as soon as shed, The sunshine of the breast...
Page 2 - To Contemplation's sober eye Such is the race of Man: And they that creep, and they that fly, Shall end where they began.