Gray and Collins

             Thomas Gray was deeply affected by the death of Richard West in 1972, which “desolated Gray and memories of West haunt much of his verse.”  He constantly was revising his poems and published very little.  He believed, “The language of age is never the language of poetry.”  Most of his poems ware a contemporary reaction against Alexander Pope’s elegance.  Gray was referred to by Samuel Johnson as “The Common Reader.”  He had a love for nature and the sublime.    

William Collins’s goal was to “create more poetry, more lyrical and fanciful than that of Alexander Pope’s generation.”  Collins was ahead of his time and was admired by the Romantics and people who love fantasy.  Samuel Johnson described Collins, as someone who loved fairy tales and magic.