Thomas Gray, Thomas Hardy On this day in 1751, Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" was published. Gray was a reclusive gentleman-poet and he did not write many poems, but this tribute to the humble life brought him immediate fame and the offer of the poet laureateship; it also became the most reprinted poem of the 18th century, one which Thomas Hardy would love and borrow from for his title, "Far From the Madding Crowd."
Online Books Page Find electronic texts of The Bard, Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard (and other poems), Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, and The Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Annotated Texts, edited by Alexander Huber.
