Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1768

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Related Poems

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray (1751)

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is generally considered Thomas Gray’s most famous work. In the poem, the speaker visits a lowly cemetery and considers the lives of the people buried there. As with “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” the poem makes use of imagery, personification, and juxtaposition. An important theme of the poem concerns the contrast between the lives of ordinary adults and famous adults. In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Gray explores the idea that not all adults deal with a harsh fate, and those who avoid the spotlight are able to maintain peace.

“Incident” by Countee Cullen (1925)

As with Gray’s poem, Cullen’s “Incident” features stanzas with the same amount of lines and a set rhyme scheme. Cullen’s poem presents a different picture of childhood as an eight-year-old child experiences the toxic world at large when the child experiences racism. The child doesn’t brush this racist moment off, remembering it even as an adult. Cullen shows how race and location can impact childhood and create an environment as harsh as the one that Gray attaches to adulthood.

“Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies” by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1931)

Millay’s poem features uneven stanzas and no discernible rhyme scheme. Like Gray’s poem, Millay speaks to the innocence of childhood as a time when nothing truly bad seems to happen. In Millay's poem, a cat dies, but the child in Millay’s poem quickly moves on from the hardship by burying the cat and forgetting about it in a short while.

Further Literary Resources

The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne (1928)

The House at Pooh Corner is the sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The books trace the whimsical adventures of Christopher Robin, Pooh, Rabbit, Piglet, and Tigger, and the narrative arc in Milne’s stories touches on the complex themes in “Ode on a Prospect of Eton College” as Milne’s book places a premium on aimlessness. In both works, the onset of adulthood spoils the enchanting purposelessness of childhood.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

Maya’s Angelou memoir focuses on her childhood, and, like Countee Cullen's poem, Angelou demonstrates that not all childhoods are free from pain and suffering. The memoir explores the author’s experiences with racism and sexual abuse, and adults prove to be wise and helpful individuals who can offer help and comfort.

“Where Ignorance is Bliss, Tis Folly To Be Wise” by David Lehman (2013)

The poet David Lehman, author of this brief essay on “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” offers insight into Thomas Gray’s life and poem. Lehman covers Gray’s position within the English canon as well as his poetic shortcomings. Lehman marvels at the final two lines of the poem, calling them an “assertion that has attained the status of a proverb.” He also marvels at Gray’s hyperbolic imagery of adulthood, referring to as “an unrelenting list of pains, grievances, ailments, and sufferings — a catalog without parallel in English lyric poetry.”