John Gray (poet) French, German, Latin, music and art. In 1882 he passed the Civil Service exams and, five years later, the University of London matriculation exams. He joined the Foreign Office where he became a librarian. Gray is best known today as an aesthetic poet of the 1890s and as a friend of Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde. He was also a talented translator, bringing works by the French Symbolists Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Jules Laforgue and Arthur Rimbaud into English, often for the first time. He is purported to be the inspiration behind the title character in Wilde's "The
Poet in the City Poet in the City Poet in the City brings poetry to life beyond books, digging out classic and contemporary gems and immersing audiences in the worlds of poets through events, commissions and participation. Poet in the City is a prominent London-based arts organisation founded in 1998 as a project of the Poetry Society; it became an independent charity in 2006. Poet in the City collaborates with leading partners from the arts and beyond, from the Barbican, Kings Place and the Royal Opera House to St Paul's Cathedral, the Francis Crick Institute and St Pancras International. They are experts in creating