Show ELEGY WAS WORK OF YEARS thomas grays graya masterpiece clearly not the result of I 1 a moment of inspiration it t was eight years from tho the time thomas gruy gray english poet began the most famous of nil his poems elegy agy ogy written in a country churchyard until lie ho had finished it ile ho began it in 1742 and it was finished in june 1750 it attracted so much attention in manuscript that a pirate announced hla intention of printing lag it this caused gray to a publisher to whom lie he loftily yielded till all the bronts to print tin on edition in 1751 it attracted ticked nt at once tile the popularity it has bus never lost and was much parodied wid imitated throughout the western world it was his love of romantic scenery and his morbid temperament which gave gray his post of eminence among the churchyard poets lio was shrinking in and fastidious tin and lio lie was also depressed by the standards of ills his age in respect to poetry biographers say that lie ho was indolent and irresolute |