Yon marble minstrel’s voiceless stone
In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanished year hath flown,
The story how ye fell.
Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter’s blight,
Nor Time’s remorseless doom,
Can dim one ray of holy light
That gilds your glorious tomb.
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD.
THOMAS GRAY.
Thomas Gray was born in London in 1716. His father neglected his family, and the boy was dependent upon his mother, who worked hard to provide her son with an education.
Through the influence of an uncle, who was an assistant at Eton, the future poet was educated at that famous school, and at Cambridge. He spent his vacations at his uncle’s house. He cared nothing for the sports of the times, but loved nature. He would sit for hours in a quiet nook, surrounded by hills and cliffs, reading, dreaming, and watching the gambols of the hares and squirrels.
Gray was twenty-two years old when he left Cambridge. He spent the following six months at home, and then accepted the invitation of one of his college friends to accompany him, free of expense, on a tour through France and Italy. His notes and letters written during this trip show remarkable taste and learning.
