David Gray
David Gray was a Scottish poet born in Merkland, Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow. The son of a weaver, he faced financial constraints but excelled academically, which allowed him to attend the University of Glasgow. Although his parents envisioned a career in the ministry for him, Gray pursued his passion for poetry despite their disapproval. In 1860, he moved to London to seek a literary career alongside his friend, Robert Buchanan. Unfortunately, his journey was marred by illness; he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and struggled with both health and financial support. Gray's work, including his long poem "The Luggie," faced rejection, deepening his feelings of despair. Upon returning home to Scotland, he continued to write, producing poignant sonnets in the face of his impending death. He passed away in December 1861, shortly after seeing a proof of his published collection. Despite a posthumous resurgence in interest due to Buchanan's memoir and subsequent editions of his work, Gray remains a relatively underexplored figure in literary scholarship.
On this Page
Subject Terms
David Gray
Poet
- Born: January 29, 1838
- Birthplace: Merkland, Kirkintilloch, Scotland
- Died: December 3, 1861
- Place of death: Merkland, Kirkintilloch, Scotland
Biography
David Gray was born in Merkland, Kirkintilloch, Scotland, near Glasgow, to his father, David Gray, a weaver with limited financial resources, and his wife. The family lived in a small cottage in a rural setting, and the younger Gray remained close to his parents until he died at home at the age of twenty-three. He was the oldest of the family’s eight children, and through success at school and personal sacrifice he was able to attend the University of Glasgow.
Gray dreamed of being a poet, but his parents dismissed the idea. They hoped he would become a minister, but he compromised by studying to become a teacher. He felt poetry was his destiny, however, and despite his parents’ objections, in early 1860, after a student-teacher internship at the Normal School in Glasgow ended, Gray and his friend, Robert Buchanan, planned to set off for London to pursue a literary life. The trip was marred by miscommunication with his traveling companion, and Gray became ill after sleeping in Hyde Park. Once he and Buchanan reunited weeks later in London, Gray leaned heavily on his friend’s support. Buchanan enlisted the assistance of Richard Monckton Milnes, who provided clerical employment for Gray.
Meanwhile, Gray hoped to publish his long poem “The Luggie,” named after a stream near his home, and he grew depressed when his work was rejected. Gray’s persistent illness was diagnosed as tuberculosis in late August, and he was told by his physician that he might not live through the cold northern winter. Fearful about his prognosis and without any means of support, he asked his friends for help, and in November,1860, he returned to London. He spent the next two months seeking treatment, initially in a sanatorium outside of London and then at Torquay, where he was shocked when he saw patients in the final stages of his disease. Weak and homesick, Gray returned home to Scotland in January, 1861. There, facing certain death, he corresponded with Buchanan, dreamed of Italy, and wrote a sequence of sonnets titled “In the Shadows.”
In large part due to the efforts of his friends, Gray’s work was finally published. He saw a proof sheet of The Luggie, and Other Poems the day before he died on December 3, 1861. The work of this final period reflects Gray’s life experiences and his struggle to accept his mortality. While several of his sonnets demonstrate a lyrical beauty that might justify Gray’s confidence in his talent, he died without reaching the pinnacle of literary achievement of which he had dreamed. When Buchanan’s memoir of Gray was republished in 1868, it was followed by the publication of a superior edition of Gray’s verse in 1874. Nonetheless, there has been little scholarly research on Gray and his works during the twentieth century.