Thomas Gray vs. John Milton

  In one corner we have Thomas Gray, the brain behind the masterpiece Elegy in a Country Churchyard, the man who made us think about the people beneath those tombstones. In the other corner we have John Milton, son of composer John Milton (that's confusing...) and author of the epic Paradise Lost, which is as it's genre describes-epic. But which of these poets will emerge as victor and move on to the semi-finals? Well, Thomas Gray, while a very intelligent man, scholar extrordinaire, was not a very prolific poet. In fact, he only ever wrote less than 1000 lines of poetic verse (and no I don't know the actual number), where as Milton wrote thousands in Paradise Lost alone. Milton was also a very important member of Cromwell's government and had a lot of influence on a shaky, newly-formed republic. Both Gray and Milton attended Cambridge, which actually isn't that surprising given that England seems to only have 2 universities: Cambridge and Oxford. (or at least if you expect to be anyone in the English Lit world, that's where you must go!) And we know Gray is the resident expert on graves, where as there is no mention of a graveyard anywhere in Paradise Lost, which seems a bit of an oversight, considering the whole death of Jesus thing in it.

So.. Who would win?

John Milton.

Alright, so these two facing off is a bit like comparing a factory worker who only installs the windshield of a space shuttle to the astrophysicist who designed the whole thing. I'm certain that the factory worker is reallyyyyy good at assembling windshields, but the everyone knows that it's the astrophysicist who gets the credit. (In case you're unsure, Gray is the factory worker, Milton the astrophysicist.) And that's a science-y as it gets here, folks!