It is composed of ten 10-line stanzas, rhyming ABABCCDEED, with the B lines and final D line in iambic trimeter and the others in iambic tetrameter.
In this poem, Gray coined the phrase "Ignorance is bliss".
It occurs in the final stanza of the poem: To each his suff'rings: all are men, Condemn'd alike to groan, The tender for another's pain; Th' unfeeling for his own.
Since sorrow never comes too late, And happiness too swiftly flies.
No more; where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.