Elegy written in a country churchyard, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica Elegy written in a country churchyard e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD This poem consists of four-line stanzas, each line has ten syllables, the rhyme scheme is abab, the metre is regular, slow and measured; there are sound devices such as external rime, alliteration, assonance, consonance and onomatopoeia. The first three stanzas introduce the subject matter that is the death and also introduce the time of day described that is the dusk. To write the first stanza Grey found inspiration from Dante and “me” at the end of that stanza refers to the author himself ; that word introduces a personal note focused on the feelings of the poet and stresses the ideas of solitude and melancholy. The poet describes the life of these country people which was made up of hard work, small joys and contact with nature. In this Grey want to underline (stanzas 9 and 10) that these humble people must not be scorned by those who are ambitious and socially higher, because death comes for everybody, independently of power, reputation or wealth. In Italy Foscolo wrote about death in “ Dei Sepolcri ”, but Foscolo said that the tombs of great men are the source of inspiration for great deeds, on the contrary Grey stresses that beautiful memories are useless because they cannot bring back life, and poverty and ignorance are responsible for the obscure destiny of humble people. Also in Grey we have the growing urbanization and industrialization in England that led to the interest in nature and humble people. The spirit of democracy derives from the long democracy tradition of Britain. Pessimistic view of the vanity of earthly glories is a consequence of Puritanism. The personification of vices and virtues is a established trend in Britain since the morality place. On the contrary Foscolo’s literary was influenced by patriotism and wish for independence from foreign domination.