Scarica “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THOMAS GRAY ● He was born in Cornhill, London in 1716 ● He became friends with Horace Walpole and together they toured France and Italy for three years ● He then settled down in Cambridge ● He made trips to the Lake District and Scotland in search for the Sublime and the Beautiful ● 1751 = Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ● 1757 = Odes ● He was interested in Celtic and Icelandic mythology and English literary history ● 1768 = he became Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge ● He died in 1771 ● TRANSITIONAL POET → he rejected neoclassical tradition but he was still linked to it in style as testified by his use of poetic diction and his conviction that everyday language cannot be the language of poetry “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” ● It belongs to the genre of elegy → an elegy is a poem written to mourn a person’s death. Gray wrote this elegy in the year 1742 after the death of his friend Richard West. ● Published in 1751 → It is considered Gray’s masterpiece ● The poem is an elegy of the common man. ● The poem is philosophical and emotional at the same time. ● The beauty of the poem lies in its simplicity. ● The poet brings out the ultimate truth about life and death in free-flowing poetic lines. THEMES ● The poem speaks of ordinary people → It is an elegy for poor villagers (not famous but honest) ● The poem talks about death as an equalizer → Rich or poor should end in death. ● No man can escape death → in death, all are equal → nothing, neither wealth nor glory can bring the dead to life ● Even honest people deserve respect for their death → given opportunities, they would have become great men in their times. ● the poet meditates on the value of the tomb as a link, the expression of affection and friendship between the living and the dead ● In the final stanzas the poet's thought turns to his own death → in the epitaph he decides to leave for people to read after his death, he says that he had a melancholy nature and a sincere soul and that he is now resting with God . SETTING ● The time is twilight and every living being on earth is retiring for the night. ● As the poem opens, the speaker is seen at the churchyard → he hears the usual evening sounds. The church bell is ringing. The shepherds and their cattle are returning home after the day’s work. ● The location is rural. ● The atmosphere is subdued and melancholic.
