inally,--not practicing, but devoting himself
to study and to excursions through rural England. He had a profound and
passionate love for nature, a kind of religious exaltation in the
contemplation of it and in mountain worship, which was at variance with
the prevailing eighteenth-century literary mood and prefigured the
feeling of Wordsworth. His mother having retired to Stoke Poges,
Buckinghamshire, he often made visits there; and the church-yard of his
deathless 'Elegy' is generally believed to be that of the parish church
at Stoke Poges. It was here that he was laid to rest in the same tomb
with his mother and his aunt, after his death, July 24th, 1771.

The 'Elegy' was finished in 1749. He had begun writing it seven years
before. This has sometimes been alluded to as an instance in point of
Horace's advice, that a poem should be matured for seven years. The
length of time given to the 'Elegy,' however, may be accounted for
partly by Gray's dilatory habits of writing, and partly by the parallel
of Tennyson's long delay in perfecting the utterance of his meditations
on the death of his friend Hallam through 'In Memoriam.' Gray's dearest
friend, Richard West, died in 1742; and it was apparently under the
stress of that sorrow that he began the 'Elegy,' which was completed
only in 1749. Two years later it was published. It won the popular heart
immediately, and passed through four editions in the first twelvemonth.

Of Gray's other poems, those which have left the deepest impression are
his 'Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,' 'The Progress of
Poesy,' and 'The Bard.' The last two are somewhat Pindaric in style, but
also suggest the influence of the Italian canzone. In the Eton College
ode, his first published piece, occurs the phrase since grown
proverbial, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." It is a
curious fact that while most readers know Gray only as the author of the
'Elegy,' every one is familiar with certain lines coined by him, but
unaware of their source. For instance, in 'The Progress of Poesy,' he
speaks of

"The unconquerable mind, and freedom's holy flame."

It is in the same place that he describes Milton as "blasted with excess
of light," and in alluding to Dryden, evolves the image of

"Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."

His, too, in 'The Bard,' is the now well-known line--

"Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm."

Many of his finest expressions are