The voices / 83 fragments

Thomas Gray

1716 AD — 1771 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

Author and source reference ↗

▷ Play this voice Search within this voice ↗Place in time ↗friendship happiness wisdom knowledge mind time love life

Historical source references

On the death of a Favourite Cat
On a Distant Prospect of Eton College
Hymn to Adversity
The Progress of Poesy
The Bard
Ode for Music
The Fatal Sisters
Elegy in a Country Churchyard
The Epitaph
Sonnet
A Long Story
Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude
Education and Government
On his own Character
To Mr
Printed citation: Gray
Number 601 · printed citation: Gray
Page 109 · printed citation: Thomas Gray (On a Distant Prospect of Eton College)
Page 17 · printed citation: Gray · subject: ADVERSITY
Page 251 · printed citation: Gray · subject: GLORY

Archive entries

01c. 1743 AD

What female heart can gold despise? What cat 's averse to fish?

Thomas Gray / quote

02c. 1743 AD

A fav'rite has no friend!

Thomas Gray / quote

03c. 1743 AD

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers.

Thomas Gray / quote

04c. 1743 AD

Ah, happy hills! ah, pleasing shade! Ah, fields beloved in vain! Where once my careless childhood stray'd, A stranger yet to pain! I feel the gales that from ye blow A momentary bliss bestow.

Thomas Gray / quote

05c. 1743 AD

They hear a voice in every wind, And snatch a fearful joy.

Thomas Gray / quote

06c. 1743 AD

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, Less pleasing when possest; The tear forgot as soon as shed, The sunshine of the breast.

Thomas Gray / quote

07c. 1743 AD

Alas! regardless of their doom, The little victims play; No sense have they of ills to come, Nor care beyond to-day.

Thomas Gray / quote

08c. 1743 AD

Ah, tell them they are men!

Thomas Gray / quote

09c. 1743 AD

And moody madness laughing wild Amid severest woe.

Thomas Gray / quote

10c. 1743 AD

To each his suff'rings; all are men, Condemn'd alike to groan,— The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own. Yet ah! why should they know their fate, Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies? Thought would destroy their paradise. No more; where ignorance is bliss, 'T is folly to be wise.

Thomas Gray / quote

11c. 1743 AD

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

Thomas Gray / quote

12c. 1743 AD

From Helicon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take.

Thomas Gray / quote

13c. 1743 AD

Glance their many-twinkling feet.

Thomas Gray / quote

14c. 1743 AD

O'er her warm cheek and rising bosom move The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love.

Thomas Gray / quote

15c. 1743 AD

Her track, where'er the goddess roves, Glory pursue, and gen'rous shame, Th' unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame.

Thomas Gray / quote

16c. 1743 AD

Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears.

Thomas Gray / quote

17c. 1743 AD

He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time: The living throne, the sapphire blaze, Where angels tremble while they gaze, He saw; but blasted with excess of light, Closed his eyes in endless night.

Thomas Gray / quote

18c. 1743 AD

Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er, Scatters from her pictured urn Thoughts that breathe and words that burn.

Thomas Gray / quote

19c. 1743 AD

Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, Beneath the good how far,—but far above the great.

Thomas Gray / quote

20c. 1743 AD

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king! Confusion on thy banners wait! Though fann'd by Conquest's crimson wing, They mock the air with idle state.

Thomas Gray / quote

21c. 1743 AD

Loose his beard, and hoary hair Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air.

Thomas Gray / quote

22c. 1743 AD

To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.

Thomas Gray / quote

23c. 1743 AD

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes; Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart.

Thomas Gray / quote

24c. 1743 AD

Weave the warp, and weave the woof, The winding-sheet of Edward's race. Give ample room and verge enough The characters of hell to trace.

Thomas Gray / quote