Thomas Gray

In the midst of life, we are in the midst of death, the Book of Common Prayer informs us.

Or, if you prefer, Thomas Gray's quote is just as apt.

Sorrow never comes too late, and happiness too swiftly flies, which is a lot of all humankind, and especially at this moment of the DeLacy family.

What specter rising from the past has temporarily scared poor Peggy Sullivan so out of her wits that she can hardly get the words out to report to all of them what terrified her?

His later work in literary sociology in no ways, discredits or undermines the fact that earlier in his career he was interested in a cultural canon.

In fact, probably the most interesting chapter in Cultural Capital is maybe not this introductory theoretical one, but an amazing chapter in which he shows how Thomas Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard came to predominate in English curricula even though it was written in the vernacular, in English.

He shows, in other words, how the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, in the way in which it situated itself in culture at that time, actually undermined the premium placed on the classics, on Latinity, and helped the emergence of a vernacular national curriculum.

It's an absolutely brilliant argument in which the elegy in A Country Churchyard is itself constantly and steadily and fascinatingly invoked.

Yes.

Coming from Thomas Gray's poem.

Well,

Hardy was a poet, and you can tell, I think, in his writing.

So it's kind of blissful to not have to worry about heavy stuff.

Now, interestingly, the origin of this, um, of this proverb is a Thomas Gray poem from the late 1700s, and the line goes like this: "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." His riff on this was a bit more granular.

He believed that if we fret about things that we cannot overthink or control, like our fates or the future, then that kind of stuff isn't worth worrying about.

It's nothing we can do.

And we think, "Oh, that big old personality of theirs, you know, maybe that kinda...

That, that honest talk, that's how you get ahead." When we are ignorant, we enable this stuff, and then we are more likely to find ourselves get deeper and deeper in with people with these personality styles, and that's never good for any of us.

Thomas Gray's original take on this when he said, "Tis folly to be wise" is ac-

There's a story from an officer who was on that boat, that as they drifted down he recited a poem.

It was Thomas Gray's Elegy, written in a country churchyard, published eight years earlier, and the line he is supposed to have dwelt on was this one.

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

The officer reported that Wolfe then said he would rather have written that poem than take Quebec in the morning.

This week, uh, to mark the centenary of Choral Evensong being broadcast on the BBC, it is on the parish church.

Uh, and there were some wonderful readings from, you know, people like John Betjeman and Thomas Gray.

Uh, and, uh, there were some great pieces of music.

Uh, but there was also a bit from P.G. Wodehouse on the Great Sermon Handicap, uh, which is, is, is a wonderful short story.

We had no idea what was coming.

the lightheartedness of ignorance is almost childlike you don't have to worry about stuff and your mind is lighter so it's kind of blissful to not have to worry about heavy stuff now interestingly the origin of this of this proverb is a thomas gray poem from the late 1700s and the line goes like this where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise.

His riff on this was a bit more granular.

He believed that if we fret about things that we cannot overthink or control, like our fates or the future, then that kind of stuff isn't worth worrying about.

And we think, oh, that big old personality of theirs, you know, maybe that kind of, that honest talk, that's how you get ahead.

When we are ignorant, we enable this stuff, and then we are more likely to find ourselves get deeper and deeper in with people with these personality styles, and that's never good for any of us.

Thomas Gray's original take on this when he said, "'Tis folly to be wise."

Wolfe, Wolfe, General Wolfe, a wolf as in the animal and then Wolfe as in the surname.

And then the story goes that the night before the battle, Wolfe recited Thomas Gray's Elegy written in a country churchyard to his officers.

That's the poem with the paths of glory lead but to the grave and he died in battle the next day.

One verb as a general, a battle, a death and one of the most famous English poems in English packed into wolf.