In Illinois
McGrath was raised in Hinsdale, Ill., by his mother, who teaches preschool, and his father, a retired fundraiser for non-profit organizations. He has an older brother who works in Chicago.
As a child, McGrath showed a short-lived interest in politics and was elected president of his fifth-grade student government. He was not always passionate about English literature, and in fact describes himself as being "resistant" to reading at first. However, McGrath always displayed an interest in language. He recalls participating in an after-school Japanese program in elementary school, although he concedes that he does not remember any of the Japanese that he learned. In high school, he studied Spanish and was a member of the Spanish Honor Society.
Though McGrath chose not to pursue science at the College, during high school, McGrath was attracted to earth science and participated in the Science Olympiad Team, which qualified for State his junior year. In his senior year, he won a writing competition for an essay about his experience playing the piano in a nursing home in his hometown, where he continues to volunteer today.
Literary awakening
It was not until his sophomore and junior years of high school that McGrath "began to read seriously." This love of books, he says, was prompted by his Spanish courses, in which he read both translated and Spanish versions of works by poets such as Federico García-Lorca, Antonio Machado and Pablo Neruda. Although he did not take any French classes, McGrath also developed an interest in what he termed "these very kind of out-there French authors," concerned with existentialism.
"I was very interested in continental literature of a pretty radical type," said McGrath. "I didn't develop my interest in English poetry, until probably much later when I got to college."
McGrath admits to initially feeling a certain bias against English canonical authors. "I thought the subject matter was very far removed from me and the style was archaic and not able to produce a sustained interest on my part, which has been absolutely contrary to my experience," he said.
McGrath remembers, for example, reading "Absalom and Achitophel" by John Dryden, a poem about the Gunpowder Plot at the beginning of 17th-century England. "I remember reading that poem and thinking, 'the Gunpowder Plot-that's something which I really have no knowledge of, and not only do I not have any knowledge of it, but I'm not really terribly interested in it, so what is the point of reading this long, densely allusive poem about the Gunpowder Plot in England?'" In retrospect, however, McGrath realized, "[the Gunpowder Plot] was an instance of terrorism in early England and certainly terrorism is something that we're still dealing with today."
McGrath's perception of English literature changed during his sophomore year at the College, when he took a class titled Major English Writers I. "This class introduced me, in ways which were much more intensive than my previous reading, to the body of work as a whole of various early English writers like Ben Jonson, John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift-people whom I had only encountered in a piecemeal way before," he recalled. "This class introduced me to their achievements in their entirety. So once I was able to see the continuum of their work, the broad spectrum of it, I think I was really able to appreciate it much more and realize that they weren't writing about things that were so far removed from me."
The class also examined literary criticism, which served to refute another one of McGrath's misconceptions about literature. "I had always assumed that literary critics were just failed poets … which was absolutely wrong," he confessed. Now, literary criticism is one of McGrath's favorite kinds of reading, and the subject of many of his book reviews for the College publication, The Indicator, of which he was senior associate editor.
Virgil and Milton
In addition to his position on The Indicator staff, McGrath has achieved academic distinction in a number of other ways.
"He has been a writing tutor for the past three years, and has been a wonderful tutor: dependable, thoughtful, patient and of course exceptionally smart," said Director of the Writing Center and Associate Dean of Students Susan Snively. "A classics and English major, he has studied both Latin and Greek and loves grammar and the intricacies of language. Yet what I like especially about Pat is that he speaks about language as a living thing, not as a collection of rules. He humanizes the way English works, and thus is able to help students who either disliked the subject in high school or were never taught much about grammar."
McGrath has worked for two years as a staff writer for The Amherst Student, writing football articles for the sports section. He also has contributed five essays over the past three years to the literary magazine Circus, covering topics from book reviewing to Bob Dylan. He was also a Greek and Latin tutor.
One of the highlights of McGrath's four years at the College was traveling to Washington, D.C., on the Folger Fellowship in the winter of his junior year and spending two weeks at the Folger Shakespeare Library, researching his favorite writer Milton, as well as Virgil.
"Pat McGrath is an extraordinary student who performed at top levels in various courses I taught in English Literature and (this semester) in Literary Criticism," said Professor of English William Pritchard. "Under my direction and that of Professor of Classics Rebecca Sinos he wrote a fine honors thesis. He moved elegantly between English and Latin (and some Greek, just for good measure) and this thesis was a model of organization and sophisticated criticism. I've seen no more gifted student than McGrath, who is also blessed with an equable and humorous temperament."
McGrath's thesis was titled "Allusion in Lycidas," and attempted to argue that Milton alludes to Virgil's Eclogue VI in "Lycidas." "Though technically an English thesis, my aim was to combine my classical studies with English literary critical scholarship," explained McGrath. "Accordingly, my thesis also examined the genre of pastoral in which Milton's 'Lycidas' was written by analyzing how Milton interpreted and creatively changed the pastoral mode of Theocritus (Greek poet who wrote in the third century B.C.) and Virgil (Latin poet who wrote in the first century B.C.). I also argued that Milton engages in a complex process of allusive argumentation in Lycidas which I termed 'internal allusion.'"
"Internal allusion is the allusion to imagery, characterization and specific language found earlier in the poem later in the poem," he elaborated. "Internal allusion does not simply repeat imagery, specific language and characterization found earlier in the poem; rather, it repeats earlier imagery, specific language, and characterization differently. The reader's charge is to determine how the later repetition is different from and similar to the initial statement, and therefore understand the 'internal allusion' as a composite of both that difference and that similarity."
McGrath is grateful for his experience at the College. "I had the privilege of having some really wonderful teachers who have helped me to define but also to further refine a lot of my ideas, my impressions and my experiences about reading and about looking closely at words," he said.
Personable Pat
When he is not immersed in a book, dedicating time at the Writing Center or writing for one of the numerous publications that he contributes to, McGrath loves to play the piano. "I love classical music, I also love Elton John and playing Elton John songs. I like music very much in general," he commented.
McGrath also enjoys spending time with his friends. "Although Pat is very serious about his work, he is also a lot of fun," said his friend Matt Mascioli '07. "Anybody who knows Pat well knows that he has one of the best senses of humor at Amherst."
Dining at Applebee's for Thursday night half-priced appetizers was a weekly custom for McGrath, Mascioli and Anthony Jack '07. They would spend the time joking and laughing and, sometimes, taking fun in making McGrath uncomfortable.
"Tony has a very liberal tongue," said McGrath of his friend Jack. "I'm a bit more reserved, so when he's chatting with or flirting with a waitress, it definitely embarrasses me," he added with a laugh.
According to Jack, "The General," as he refers to McGrath, is a "great guy" but "horrible with names." "He will get names right eventually, but damn, it takes a while," Jack said.
McGrath's professors also enjoyed fraternizing with him. Snively is fond of his sense of humor, which she described as "rueful, ironic but gentle," and said that he has been a very popular tutor. And Sinos said this of one of her favorite students: "He has excellent taste in literature and in dogs."
Professorial ambitions
Since classes have finished, McGrath has enjoyed catching up on some leisure reading. Next year, he will be a Writing Fellow in the Writing Center. After that job, which will last for one or two years, he plans to attend graduate school in either English or classics. McGrath hopes to eventually pursue a career in academics. Presently, he is in the process of writing an essay on the uses of rhyme in Shakespeare's play "Othello."
"I love working at the Writing Center," said McGrath. "I've developed a lot of relationships with people through the Writing Center. It's a wonderful community of tutors and writers who come in. I learn so much from students and their papers and their thoughts about writing. It's just something that, intellectually, I really gravitate to, and also on a personal level, I've met a lot of really amazing people from whom I have learned quite a great deal."
McGrath also looks forward to giving a lecture next year. His thesis advisor, Pritchard, is teaching a course about Milton and asked McGrath to give a presentation to the class about one of Milton's poems. Beyond that, McGrath has visions of what academic life may be like. "I probably see myself ending up maybe as a professor about whom students tell a lot of jokes," McGrath said with a smile. "That's where I see myself in 20 years-giving a lecture to a half-asleep class."