Close Reading of Thomas Grey, "Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard"
A close reading of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard" Pastoral, taken from the Latin 'Pastor', meaning 'Shepherd', refers to literary work dealing with shepherds and the rustic, countryside lifestyle. The pastoral represents more of an idealized view rather than that of a realistic one. "If we would copy Nature, it may be useful to take this idea along with us, that pastoral is a version of what they call the Golden Age ... [The poet must] ... use some illusion to render a pastoral delightful; and this consists in exposing the best side only of a shepherd's life, and in concealing it's miseries." (Pope, 'A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry'. In Butt, John, ed. [1963] The Poems of Alexander Pope. London: Routledge) This extract taken from Pope's comments on the pastoral can be seen very vividly in his poem "Spring". In contrast to this, Stephen Duck's "The Thresher's Labour" attempts to show the actual working class lifestyle of the time. There are many topics associated with the pastoral poem, including love and seduction, shown in Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd To His Love" and death and mourning. The elegy is an important group of the pastoral theme, and conventional features include the expression of grief, the praise of the dead, and the effects of death upon nature. Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard" portrays
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh An exploration of the alterity of the artist woman in Book 2 and 3, focussing upon the symbolic judgments voiced by Romney and Lady Waldemar, with reference to Auroras impertinence and asex
Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Aurora Leigh - An exploration of the alterity of the "artist woman" in Book 2 and 3, focussing upon the symbolic judgments voiced by Romney and Lady Waldemar, with reference to Aurora's 'impertinence' and 'asexuality.' Both Romney Leigh and Lady Waldemar make symbolic judgments about Aurora. They are disturbed by her role as a writer, which they view as 'impertinence.' As an 'artist woman' in a man's world, this makes Aurora neither man nor woman in their eyes but 'asexual.' This essay explores these judgments in the light of Aurora's otherness which is in contrast to the identity which a patriarchal society has constructed for women. Romney's voice is the voice of patriarchy. His speech reveals the identity that a patriarchal society has constructed for women when he tells Aurora that the proper place for a "Woman as you are, mere woman, personal and passionate" is in the role of: "... doting mothers, and perfect wives, Sublime Madonnas, and enduring saints! (II.220-3) As this speech shows, Romney believes all women should remain within the traditional roles assigned to them by patriarchy. The expectation for women is that they resemble in behaviour, the Virgin Mary or other saints, who endure great hardship but without complaint. Victorian society believed that a woman's sole focus in life should be on the needs of her children and
Romantic Poetry Anthology
Nurses Song - Blake The Evening Star - Blake The Garden Of Love - Blake Frost At Midnight - Coleridge The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner - Coleridge This Lime Tree Bower My Prison - Coleridge Ode On A Grecian Urn - Keats Ode To A Nightingale - Keats To Autumn - Keats The World Is Too Much With Us - Wordsworth Tintern Abbey - Wordsworth She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways - Wordsworth Romanticism is not about love or romance, it is a system of attributes relating to poetic and artistic practice from the late 18th century to the 1830's. In fact the romantic era cannot be pin pointed to a particular century. Instead it is said that Romanticism started around 1789, when the French Revolution had begun, and ended when Queen Victoria took to the throne in 1836. Romanticism was a reaction against poetry of the previous period. 18th Century poetry was, amongst other things, harmonious, graceful and balanced. Romantic poetry was a revolution and an innovation. Wordsworth stated that it was the 'real language of men'. There are six key figures on Romanticism; the first generation consisted of William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The second generation, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats. As there would be in many different eras and periods, there are certain characteristics of Romantic Poetry, although not all of them would be found in a single