"Where ignorance is pleasure, it is foolishness to be wise," says Thomas Gray in his poem Ode on a Distant Prospect at Eton College. We commonly hear the abbreviated phrase, "ignorance is bliss," which may be used as an excuse to be lazy with one's thinking and be happier. However, Gray is saying that if you embrace ignorance, then wisdom is painful and cannot be enjoyed. Wisdom comes with knowledge and knowledge makes us responsible. If we know what will happen but still choose to do something wrong, we are guilty of sin. So ignorance is not a safe position to be in because it prevents us from enjoying life and being happy. Gray is talking about physical pain here but his meaning can be extended to emotional suffering as well. If we reject knowledge and stay in darkness, we will never experience joy. He uses poetry as a means of communication and he achieves this goal very well by touching our hearts with his words. This short poem is one of Gray's early poems and it was written when he was only twenty years old. It shows that he was capable of expressing himself eloquently even at such a young age. This proves that he had great potential and could have done many things with his life. However, he chose to use his time wisely by writing poems instead.