Robert William Geoffrey Gray (born February 23, 1945) is a poet, freelance writer, and critic from Australia. He has been called "an Imagist without a competitor in the English-speaking world" and "one of the modern masters of English poetry." Gray was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and grew up in Sydney. He graduated from University College Dublin with a degree in economics and political science, then worked for a bank in London for a year before returning to Ireland as an economist with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. In 1971, he moved back to Sydney and began writing poems again. He now lives in the coastal city of Botany Bay, near Sydney. Gray's work tends to focus on the transience of life, love, and happiness. Many of his poems are about sea creatures and ocean environments, such as shells, waves, and seabirds. Others focus on human emotions and relationships, such as loneliness, grief, and disappointment. In addition to publishing several collections of poems, Gray has written two books on poetry: A New Path to the Sky (1989), which focuses on contemporary British poets including Philip Larkin, John Donne, and Michael Longley; and The Way Through Doors: An Introduction to Poetry (1998). Gray has been praised for the elegance and simplicity of his language and imagery.