Gray, Thomas

Gray, Thomas (1716–71),
English pre-Romantic poet, author of the famous Elegy. Gray praises Shakespeare's poetry, anticipating later image criticism, in a 1742 letter to his Eton school-friend and fellow poet Richard West (1716–42): ‘In truth, Shakespeare's language is one of his principal beauties … every word in him is a picture.’ (See poems on Shakespeare)

Tom Matheson