Graveyard Poets

A group of eighteenth-century English poets who, unlike their "rational"
neoclassical contemporaries, emphasized subjectivity, mystery, and

melancholy in their poems along with the subjects of death,
immortality, mortality and gloom which were often actually set in
graveyards. This school, which is in the Gothic tradition, is often said to
have laid the groundwork for English romanticism
During this period, a group of young poets chose death for their
subject. These poets are sometimes called the Churchyard School of
poets. One of them was Edward Young. His Night-Thoughts (1742) was
very popular and was written in good blank verse. In this he deals with
life, death, the future world and God. It has a sad and dark atmosphere
filled with strange imaginations. Robert Blair also wrote in the same
tone and used the blank verse. In his poem “The Grave” (1743), he
requests the dead to come back and tell about the grave.
The fine poet of this school was Thomas Gray. His “Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard” (1751) is one of the most beautiful and famous
English poems. In this elegy, he expresses his sad thoughts as he looks
at the graves of the poor villagers in the churchyard of Stoke Poges. He
thinks of what they would have become if they had received the
opportunity. But he feels sorry for them because they could not go to
the cities to become famous. His ode ‘The Bard’ is a sad song by Welsh
bard. He curses King Edward I and his race for killing all the bards of
Wales.
Thomas gray
Thomas Gray, (born Dec. 26, 1716, London—died July 30,
1771, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.), English poet whose “An Elegy
Written in a Country Church Yard” is one of the best known of English
lyric poems. Although his literary output was slight, he was the
dominant poetic figure in the mid-18th century and a precursor of
the Romantic movement.
Thomas Gray
1716–1771
Thomas Gray is generally considered the second most important poet

of the eighteenth century (following the dominant figure of Alexander
Pope) and the most disappointing. It was generally assumed by friends
and readers that he was the most talented poet of his generation, but
the relatively small and even reluctantly published body of his works
has left generations of scholars puzzling over the reasons for his limited
production and meditating on the general reclusiveness and timidity
that characterized his life. Samuel Johnson was the first of many critics
to put forward the view that Gray spoke in two languages, one public
and the other private, and that the private language—that of his best-
known and most-loved poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
(published in 1751 as An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard)—was
too seldom heard. William Wordsworth decided in his preface to Lyrical
Ballads (1798), using Gray's "Sonnet on the Death of Richard West"
(1775) as his example, that Gray, governed by a false idea of poetic
diction, spoke in the wrong language; and Matthew Arnold, in an
equally well-known judgment, remarked that the age was wrong for a
poetry of high seriousness, that Gray was blighted by his age and never
spoke out at all. Such judgments sum up the major critical history of
Gray's reception and reputation as a poet. He has always attracted
attentive critics precisely because of the extraordinary continuing
importance of the "Elegy," which, measured against his other
performances, has seemed indisputably superior.
Gray's poetry is concerned with the rejection of sexual desire. The

figure of the poet in his poems is often a lonely, alienated, and marginal
one, and various muses or surrogate-mother figures are invoked—in a
manner somewhat anticipatory of John Keats's employment of similar
figures—for aid or guidance
Edward young
Edward Young, (baptized July 3, 1683, Upham, Hampshire, Eng.—died

April 5, 1765, Welwyn, Hertfordshire), English poet, dramatist, and
literary critic, author of The Complaint: or, Night Thoughts (1742–45), a
long, didactic poem on death. The poem was inspired by the successive
deaths of his stepdaughter, in 1736; her husband, in 1740; and Young’s
wife, in 1741. The poem is a blank-verse dramatic monologue of nearly
10,000 lines, divided into nine parts, or “Nights.” It was enormously
popular.
As a dramatist, Young lacked a theatrical sense, and his plays are rarely
performed. Of them, The Revenge (Drury Lane, April 1721) is generally
thought to be the best.
Young’s fame in Europe, particularly in Germany, was augmented by a
prose work, the Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), addressed
to his friend Samuel Richardson. It sums up succinctly and forcefully
many strains of thought later regarded as Romantic
The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality,
better known simply as Night-Thoughts, is a long poem by Edward
Young published in nine parts (or "nights") between 1742 and 1745.
The poem is written in blank verse. It describes the poet's musings on
death over a series of nine "nights" in which he ponders the loss of his
wife and friends, and laments human frailties. The best-known line in
the poem (at the end of "Night I") is the adage "procrastination is the
thief of time", which is part of a passage in which the poet discusses
how quickly life and opportunities can slip away.
Night-Thoughts had a very high reputation for many years after its
publication, but is now best known for a major series of illustrations
by William Blake in 1797. A lesser-known set of illustrations was
created by Thomas Stothard in 1799.
The nine nights are each a poem of their own. They are: "Life, Death,
and Immortality" (dedicated to Arthur Onslow); "Time, Death,
Friendship" (dedicated to Spencer Compton); "Narcissa" (dedicated
to Margaret Bentinck); "The Christian Triumph" (dedicated to Philip
Yorke); "The Relapse" (dedicated to George Lee); "The Infidel
Reclaim'd" (in two parts, "Glories and Riches" and "The Nature, Proof,
and Importance of Immortality"; dedicated to Henry Pelham); "Virtue's
Apology; or, The Man of the World Answered" (with no dedication);
and "The Consolation" (dedicated to Thomas Pelham-Holles).
In his Life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswellcalled Night-Thoughts "the
grandest and richest poetry that human genius has ever produced".

Graveyard Poets

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Graveyard Poets

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Graveyard Poets

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A group of eighteenth-century English poets who, unlike their "rational"

neoclassical contemporaries, emphasized subjectivity, mystery, and

Thomas Gray is generally considered the second most important poet

Gray's poetry is concerned with the rejection of sexual desire. The

Edward Young, (baptized July 3, 1683, Upham, Hampshire, Eng.—died

You might also like