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Thomas Gray
Elegy Written in a Country-yard
• I. Sentimentalism in English Poetry.
• In the first half of the l8th century, Pope
was the leader of English poetry and the
heroic couplet the fashion of poetry. By the
middle of the century, however,
sentimentalism gradually made its
appearance.
• Sentimentalism came into being as the
result of a bitter discontent among the
enlightened people with social reality.
Differences between sentimentalism and
classicism
• 1.Dissatisfied with reason, which classicists appealed to,
sentimentalists appealed to sentiment to the human
heart.
• 2. "Sentimentalism turned to the countryside and its
material and so is in striking contrast to classicism, which
had confined itself to the clubs and drawing-rooms,
and to the social and political life of London.
• 3. Meanwhile, the poetry of the sentimentalism is marked
by a sincere sympathy for the poverty--stricken
expropriated peasants. They wrote the "simple annals of
the poor', though still in a classical style.
II. Pre-romanticism:
• In the latter half of the 18th century, a new
literary move merit arose in Europe, called the
Romantic Revival.
• It was marked by
• a strong protest against the bondage of
Classicism
• a recognition of passion and emotion
• a renewed interest in medieval literature.
• In England, this movement showed itself in the
trend of pre-Romanticism in poetry, which was
ushered in by poetry, represented by Blake and
Burns. Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) is the
saddest and most interesting figure of the Pre-
Romantic movement.
III. Thomas Gray
(December 26, 1716 – July 30, 1771)
an English poet, classical scholar and professor
at Cambridge University.
• He was born in Cornhill, London, educated at
Eton College. He recalled his schooldays as a
time of great happiness, as is evident in his Ode
on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
• He made three close friends at Eton: Horace
Walpole, son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole,
Thomas Ashton, and Richard West. The four of
them prided themselves on
their sense of style, their sense of humour,
and their appreciation of beauty.
• In 1734, Gray went to Cambridge. At first
he stayed in Pembroke College.
• He began seriously writing poems in 1742,
mainly after his close friend Richard West
died.
• He moved to Cambridge and began a self-
imposed programme of literary study,
becoming one of the most learned men of
his time.
IV. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
1. It is believed that Gray wrote his masterpiece, the
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in the graveyard
of the church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire in 1750.
2. The poem was a literary sensation when published by
Robert Dodsley in February 1751 and has made a
lasting contribution to English literature.
3. Its reflective, calm and stoic tone was greatly admired,
and it was pirated, imitated, quoted and translated into
Latin and Greek.
V. ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-
YARD
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
The Epitaph
Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
And Melacholy marked him for her own.
• Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.