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First page of Dodsley's illustrated edition of Gray's Elegy with illustration by Richard Bentley. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. [1] The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742.
Plaque marking Thomas Gray's birthplace at 39 Cornhill, London. Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, and classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, published in 1751. [1]
At its narrowest, the term "Graveyard School" refers to four poems: Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", Thomas Parnell's "Night-Piece on Death", Robert Blair's The Grave and Edward Young's Night-Thoughts. At its broadest, it can describe a host of poetry and prose works popular in the early and mid-eighteenth century.
Gray's tomb is designated Grade II. [21] The Gray Monument (adjacent to St Giles' church and owned by the National Trust) [22] is listed at Grade II*. [23] The lychgate is by John Oldrid Scott and is a Grade II listed structure. [24] The churchyard also contains war graves of six British armed services personnel, four of World War I and two of ...
These works appeared in Pope's lifetime and were popular, but the older, more conservative poetry maintained its hold for a while to come. On the other hand, Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard set off a new craze for poetry of melancholy reflection. Gray's Elegy appeared in 1750, and it immediately set new ground. First, it was ...
In a similar vein, Brooks analyzes Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". The message of this poem seems straightforward and was duplicated by many other "graveyard" poems of the late eighteenth century. Therefore, according to Brooks, what makes it one of the most famous in the English language cannot be the poem's message.
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometimes used as a catch-all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual monumentalizing, and sometimes strictly as a ...
"Carper 1987" - Carper, Thomas. "Gray's Personal Elegy" in Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. "Weinbrot 1978" - Weinbrot, Howard. "Gray's Elegy: A Poem of Moral Choice and Resolution" (need to check the publication year is 1978) "Golden 1988" - Golden, Morris. Thomas Gray.