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Christian Gray (1772 – circa 1830) was a Scottish poet. Blind from a young age, Gray was known as the "blind poet" and wrote in both Scots and English. She published two volumes of poems in a variety of genres, including political, religious, and autobiographical.

Biography

Christian Gray was born by April 1772 in Aberdalgie, Perthshire. Her family had been farmers for generations; she was the eldest of two children who survived to adulthood.

Gray lost her eyesight in childhood after falling ill with smallpox. She had passages of the Bible and poetry read to her often, and she knitted while walking in nature. Her neighbors provided assistance after her parents died, and she lived in a cottage provided by the Earl of Kinnoull.

Scottish historian Peter Robert Drummond visited Gray around 1827 and featured a chapter on her in Perthshire in Bygone Days: One Hundred Biographical Essays; he writes that she lived "a number of years" after his visit.

Writing

Gray wrote in both Scots and English on a range of topics, including marriage, slavery, religion, war, and her own blindness. Some of her poems were written in response to well-known Scots songs. She composed poems in her head and recited them from memory until a visitor would write them down for her, often the schoolmaster of Aberdalgie. Her poem "The Victims of War," published in 1811, describes a doomed pair: Julia follows her lover Alexis to war, where he is shot and killed, and Julia endures hardships in her return to England. Another poem, "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, a Legendary Tale," reflects on Gray's intellectual and literary growth.

Bibliography

• Tales, Letters, and Other Pieces in Verse, etc. Oliver & Boyd. 1808.
• A New Selection of Miscellaneous Pieces in Verse. Printed for the author, by R. Morison. 1821.

References

1. ^ "Christian Gray". Orlando: Women's Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
2. ^ Drummond, Peter Robert (1879). "Chapter XIX. Christian Gray". Perthshire in Bygone Days: One Hundred Biographical Essays. London: W.B. Whittingham & Company. pp. 404–409. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
3. ^ Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose, eds. (2006). The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780748626601. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
4. Sheridan, Sara. "Five amazing Scottish women with disabilities whose stories you should know". The National. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
5. Behrendt, Stephen C. (2000). "'A few harmless Numbers': British women poets and the climate of war, 1793–1815". In Shaw, Philip (ed.). Romantic Wars : Studies in Culture and Conflict, 1793–1822. London: Routledge. pp. 13–36. ISBN 9781840142662. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
6. Curran, Stuart (1999). "Romantic Women Poets: Inscribing the Self". In Armstrong, Isobel; Blain, Virginia (eds.). Women's Poetry in the Enlightenment: The Making of a Canon, 1730–1820. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 157–159. ISBN 9780333691519. Retrieved 25 August 2021.

External links

• A New Selection of Miscellaneous Pieces digitized copy of 1821 book

• 1772 births
• 1830 deaths
• 19th-century Scottish poets
• 19th-century Scottish women writers
• Scottish blind people
• Writers from Perth and Kinross
• Scottish women poets