Thomas Gray:Transitional PoetMrs. Cumberland

ObjectivesTo become acquainted with the work of Thomas GrayTo examine the elegyTo study an example of the literary transition from Neoclassical to Romantic literature

Thomas Gray

Born in London on December 26,1716His father was a violent-tempered man who worked as a scrivener ( public copyist or writer, such as a notary)His mother supplemented income by keeping a shopAllowed Gray to go to Eton and CambridgeHe studied classical literature

Gray traveled for three yrs. after graduating.Never marriedProfessor of modern history and languages at Cambridge.Spent time as a poet and scholarExplored British museum ( opened 1759)Died in Cambridge in 1771 after a long illness

Gray as a PoetRepresents a transition from the Neoclassical couplet of Pope to the more expansive verse forms of the Romantic poets

Gray as a Poet ( continued)Four-line stanza form with abab rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter became known as the elegiac stanzain honor of his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Gray as a Poet ( continued)Alternating rhyme of this verse differs from the classical couplet form, but preserves the emphasis on following a patternDiction has much of the precision and polish of the Neoclassical school.

Shows Romantic tendencies in the spirit and themes of his poetry more than in his form.

His depiction of nature and the common life anticipates later Romantic poets like Wordsworth

Grays focus on the life of the common people and the effect of nature upon ones mood are characteristic of the Romantic poet.

Elegyin a ChurchyardMost famous of his poemsSpent six years composing the poemReveals personality in emotional expressions on nature and death.

Elegy..in aChurchyardReflects Popes epigram, What oft was thought, but neer so well expressed

DefinitionsElegy:A poem lamenting the death of a friend or a famous person

Compare Tennysons In Memoriam or Whitmans When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard BloomEulogy:A speech or writing extolling the virtues and services of a person- especially referring t a funeral oration

Note: Grays Elegy does not refer to a particular death, but rather reflection of the lives of people buried in the churchyard and, by extension, of humankind in general.

Poetic diction/classical and topical allusions in Elegy

Elegy

Elegy

Elegy

Elegy

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READ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Answer discussion questions

ReflectThe poem is Neoclassical in styleRegular iambic pentameter linesThe curfew tolls the knell of parting dayPoetic in dictionstoried urnthe dull cold ear of DeathThe poem is Romantic in toneScenes of natureExaltation of humble country folk and gentle melancholy tone

Additional ActivitiesRead Elegy and Edward Youngs Night Thoughts or Robert Blairs The Grave and compare their views on death with Grays

One of Grays contemporaries is William Collins. Read Collinss ode to Evening and compare its Neoclassical and Romantic elements with those of Grays Elegy

Two modern elegies are Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke ( 1908-1963) and Elegy for William Hubbard by Tony Connor ( 1930-) Compare the subject matter of these two elegies with Grays poem