David Gray (poet)
David Gray (29 January 1838 – 3 December 1861) was a Scottish poet, from Merkland, Kirkintilloch. He died in his hometown aged 23. His friend and fellow poet Robert Buchanan wrote his biography in 1900.[1]
Life
The son of a
Shortly after his arrival in London Gray introduced himself to
Published work
The Luggie, the principal poem of Gray, is a kind of reverie in which the scenes and events of his childhood and his early aspirations are mingled with the music of the stream which he celebrates. The series of
Below is a copy of a sonnet which is one of a number he wrote,[4] entitled, "In the shadows." His description of a wet October day shows the skill of the terminally-ill poet:
October's gold is dim— the forests rot,
The weary rain falls ceaseless, while the day
Is wrapped in damp. In mire of village way
Tae hedge-row leaves are stamp'd, and, all forgot,
The broodless nest sits visible in the thorn.
Autumn, among her drooping marigolds,
Weeps all her garnered sheaves, and empty folds,
And dripping orchards – plundered and forlorn.
The season is a dead one, and I die !
No more, no more for me the spring shall make
A resurrection in the earth and take
The death from out her heart. O God, I die !
The cold throat mist creeps nearer, till I breathe
Corruption. Drop stark night upon my death !
The Luggie and other Poems, with an introduction by R. Monckton Milnes, and a brief memoir by James Hedderwick, was published in 1862; and a new and enlarged edition of Gray's Poetical Works, edited by Henry Glassford Bell, appeared in 1874.[5] See also David Gray and other Essays,[6] by Robert Buchanan (1868), where he also has an essay on Walt Whitman. Buchanan also has a poem on David Gray, in Idyls and Legends of Inverburn.[3][7] Parts of "The Luggie" have been narrated against a backdrop of the Luggie Water.[8] The eponymous anthology is available and is out of copyright.[9]
David Gray's self penned epitaph was:
Below lies one whose name was traced in sand-
He died not knowing what it was to live:
Died while the first sweet consciousness of manhood
And maiden thought electrified his soul:
Faint beatings in the calyx of the rose.
Bewildered reader, pass without a sigh
In a proud sorrow!
There is life with God,
In other kingdom of a sweeter air:
In Eden every flower is blown: Amen.
27 September 1861.[10]
References
- ^ Buchanan, Robert Williams (1900). The story of David Gray. Portland, Me.: T. B. Mosher. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ https://archive.org/stream/kirkintillochtow00wats#page/308/mode/2up Kirkintilloch, Town and Parish pg 308ff
- ^ a b c d public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gray, David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 390. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Watson, Thomas (1894). Kirkintilloch, town and parish. Glasgow: Scot., J. Smith. p. 313. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Bell, Henry Glassford (1874). The Poetical Works of David Gray. J. Maclehose. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Buchanan, Robert Williams (1868). David Gray, and other essays, chiefly on poetry. London: S. Low, son, and Marston. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ Buchanan, Robert Williams (1865). Idyls and legends of Inverburn. London: A. Strahan. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
- ^ "Caught by the River Luggie - Caught by the River". Archived from the original on 23 November 2015.
- ^ "The Luggie: And other poems". 1862.
- ^ http://www.rbwf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1963.pdf pdf pp. 33, 66
External links
- Works by or about David Gray at Internet Archive
- Works by David Gray at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)