Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes by Thomas Gray;Thomas Parnell;Tobias George Smollett;Samuel Johnson
page 171 of 295 (57%)
page 171 of 295 (57%)
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END OF PARNELL'S POEMS.
* * * * * THE LIFE AND POEMS OF THOMAS GRAY. How dearly, at one time, and how cheaply at another, does Genius purchase immortal fame! Here a Milton "Scorns delights, and lives laborious days," that he may, through sufferings, sorrows, and the strainings of a long life, pile up a large and lofty poem;--and there a Gray, in the intervals of other studies, produces a few short but exquisite verses, which become instantly and for ever popular, and render his name as dear to many, if not dearer, than that of the sublimer bard; for there are probably thousands who would prefer to have written the "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard," instead of the "Paradise Lost." Thomas Gray was born in Cornhill, London, on the 26th December 1716. His father was Mr Philip Gray, a respectable scrivener, and his mother's name was Dorothy Antrobus. Gray was the fifth of twelve children, and the only one that survived. His life was saved in infancy by his mother, who, during a paroxysm which attacked her son, |
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