Assignment - 2: Thomas Gray as a 'Transitional Poet'

TOPIC OF THE BLOG:-

This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 102 - Literature of the Neo-classical Period, Sem - 1, 2023. 

           

             Thomas Gray as a Transitional Poet 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:-

 ❍ Personal information

 ❍ Assignment Details

 ❍ Abstract

 ❍ Keywords

 ❍ Introduction

 ❍ Transitional Poets 

 ❍ Thomas Gray

 ❍ 'Elegy written in a country Churchyard.' Poem by Thomas Gray

 ❍ Thomas Gray as a Transitional Poet

 ❍ Quotes by Thomas Gray

 ❍ Conclusion

 ❍ Work cited

PERSONAL INFORMATION:-

 

Name: - Priyanshiba Kanaksinh Gohil

Batch No: M.A. Sem 1 (2023-2025)

Enrollment Number: - 5108230018 

E-mail Address: - priyabagohil7126@gmail.com

Roll Number: - 25

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS: -

Topic: - Thomas Gray as A 'Transitional Poet'

Paper & subject code: - 102 - Literature of the Neo-classical Period & 22393

Submitted to: - Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar.

Date of Submission: - 01st December, 2023

About Assignment: - In this Assignment, I try to Explore Thomas Gray as a Transitional poet.

 

ABSTRACT: -

Thomas Gray is a unique poet of the 18th-century. He is often regarded as a transitional poet in the history of English poetry. His works exhibit characteristics of both the neoclassical and romantic periods. These characteristics have made him an important transitional poet. In his works we find the rationality and order of the neoclassical era and the emotional and imaginative nature of the romantic era During Gray's lifetime (1716-1771), Neoclassicism was the dominant literary movement. This movement emphasized reason, order, and formal structures. The neoclassical poets adhered to strict rules of decorum. They often focused on moral themes, classical allusions, and didacticism. Gray, however, introduced a more personal and introspective approach to poetry. The emergence of romanticism was the result of this new approach. Gray's innovative and introspective approach laid a solid foundation for the development of the Romantic Movement. His emphasis on individual emotion and personal experience as well as his use of vivid imagery and evocative language resonate with the Romantic poets. His exploration of the inner self and the expression of subjective feelings contributed to the shift away from the strict formalism of neoclassicism.

KEYWORDS: 

Capricious, Fickle, Protean, Shifting, Unpredictable, Unsettled, 

INTRODUCTION: -

Thomas Gray is the greatest poet between Milton and Wordsworth. He is called the poetical classic of the 18th century. It is he who has offered some immortal poems to the literature of his nation. 'An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' is the best example of it.

Gray is a great and matchless elegiac poet in the annals of English poetry. He indulged himself in the luxury of tears. Melancholy is the distinguishing feature of his poems. His poetry is full of sorrow, suffering, disease and death. As a true mourner Gray mourns the tragic fate of mankind. He always deals with the mortality and meaninglessness of human life. His 'ELEGY...' is a sincere song of mourning. Thus, Gray is par excellence a poet of death and mourning. As a precursor of English Romantic movement Gray had no sympathy for the conventional verse. He tried to break through the bounds of the prevailing patterns of poetry. He stood strongly against the bondage of rules, conventions and customs. He sought and found inspiration in the literature of the past. He had love for nature, medieval-ism, Hellenism and melancholy. He had sympathy for the weak and the poor. These all are the prominent characteristics of the Romantic poetry.

Transitional Poet:

It was the mid-eighteenth century and poets were tiring of the neoclassical ideals of reason and wit. The Neoclassic poets, such as Alexander Pope, "prized order, clarity, economic wording, logic, refinement, and decorum. Theirs was an age of rationalism, wit, and satire." (Guth 1836) This contrasts greatly with the ideal of Romanticism, which was "an artistic revolt against the conventions of the fashionable formal, civilized, and refined Neoclassicism of the eighteenth century." (Guth 1840) Poets like William, "dropped conventional poetic diction and forms in Favour of freer forms and bolder language. They preached a return to nature, elevated sincere feeling over dry intellect, and often shared in the revolutionary Favour of the late eighteenth century." (Guth 589) Poets wanted to express emotion again. They wanted to leave the city far behind and travel back to the simple countryside where rustic, humble men and women resided and became their subjects. These poets, William Blake, Thomas Gray, and Robert Burns, caught in the middle of neoclassic writing and the Romantic Age, are fittingly known as the Transitional poets.

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. Born into a prosperous but unhappy home, Gray was the sole survivor of 12 children of a harsh and violent father and a long-suffering mother, who operated a millinery business to educate him. A delicate and studious boy, he was sent to Eton in 1725 at the age of eight. There he formed a “Quadruple Alliance” with three other boys who liked poetry and classics and disliked rowdy sports and the Hogarthian manners of the period. They were Horace Walpole, the son of the prime minister; the precocious poet Richard West, who was closest to Gray; and Thomas Ashton. The style of life Gray developed at Eton, devoted to quiet study, the pleasures of the imagination, and a few understanding friends, was to persist for the rest of his years.

'Elegy written in a country Churchyard.' Poem by Thomas Gray:

Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard '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. However, he published it only in the year 1751. He wrote this poem after the death of his friend Richard West.

Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” presents the omniscient speaker who talks to the reader. First, he stands alone in a graveyard deep in thought. While there, he thinks about the dead people buried there. The graveyard referred to here is the graveyard of the church in Stoke Pogoes, Buckinghamshire. The speaker contemplates the end of human life throughout the poem. He remarks on the inevitability of death that every individual has to face. Besides mourning the loss of someone, the speaker in the elegy reminds the reader that all people will die one day. Death is an unavoidable and natural thing in everyone’s life. When one dies today, tomorrow, a stranger will see the person’s tombstone. Out of curiosity, he will ask about the person buried there to a villager. The villager will reply that he knew the man. He would add that he had seen him in various spots. Sometimes, he will also remark that he had stopped seeing the man one day, and then there was the tombstone.

   In the poem, Gray, the poet himself, writes the epitaph of his own. He says that his life is full of sadness and depression. However, he feels proud of his knowledge. He calls it incomparable. In addition to this, he says that ‘No one is perfect in this world.’ So, he asks the reader not to judge anyone in the graveyard. Each and every soul is different and takes rest for eternity in the graveyard. In conclusion, the poet, through the speaker, ends the elegy by saying that death is an inevitable event in this world. Also, he says that man’s efforts and his struggles to succeed in life comes to an end in death. Thus, death conquers man regardless of his successes and/or failures in his endeavors during his life.

Thomas Gray as a Transitional poet:

Thomas Gray is transitional poet. He showed his merit between the Neo-Classical and Romantic Age. Thus, his position as a classic and as a precursor of Romanticism is established. It is said that he began his career as Classicist but ended as a romantic poet.

One of Gray's most famous poems, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,’ is the best example of his transitional style. This poem follows some significant conventions of neoclassicism. Here Gray has used heroic quatrains and formal diction. But at the same time this poem also explores deeply personal and melancholic themes. Gray contemplates the lives and deaths of ordinary people buried in a rural churchyard. Here he expresses a sense of empathy and emotional connection with their plight. This emotional depth matches with the attitude of the romantic poets. Moreover, Gray's poetry often showcases his interest in nature and the sublime. In poems like ‘Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College’ and ‘The Bard,’ he portrays nature as a powerful and awe-inspiring force.

As a precursor of English Romantic movement Gray had no sympathy for the conventional verse. He tried to break through the bounds of the prevailing patterns of poetry. He stood strongly against the bondage of rules, conventions and customs. He sought and found inspiration in the literature of the past. He had love for nature, medieval-ism, Hellenism and melancholy. He had sympathy for the weak and the poor. These all are the prominent characteristics of the Romantic poetry.

Quotes by Thomas Gray: 

“Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

― Thomas Gray, An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

“Where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

- Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”

― Thomas Gray, Gray and Collins: Poetical Works

conclusion: 

In short, Thomas Gray can be considered a transitional poet. It is because his works embody elements of both neoclassical and romantic poetry. His contributions to poetry set the stage for the transformation of English literature.

As a great poet Gray showed his metrical excellence but he never sacrificed sense to sound. He was in the habit of using antithesis, personification, epigrams, circumlocutions, allegories and compound words. His poetry is lyrical in form and refined in style. There is musical virtuosity in his poetry. He avoided the predominant couplet and preferred the stanza. Thus, Gray is great, matchless and immortal poet. He wrote poetry with a great degree of ease and comfort. He will be remembered for ever for his simplicity, tenderness, human touch and universal feelings. In his poems he attained the sublimity of Milton and the harmony of Pope.

work cited:

❖Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2023, July 26). Thomas Gray. Encyclopedia Britannica. Thomas Gray | English Poet & Elegy Writer | Britannica

❖ Ram, Kevin. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray". Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/thomas-gray/elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard/. Accessed 21 November 2023. 

❖Goodreads, Quotes by Thomas Gray,

Thomas Gray Quotes (Author of An Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard) (goodreads.com)

❖Thomas Gray as a Transitional poet, englishliteraturemail,

https://www.englitmail.com/2023/05/thomas-gray-as-transitional-poet.html

❖Thomas Gray as a Transitional poet, englishliteraturemail,

https://www.englitmail.com/2017/04/thomas-gray-as-transitional-poet.html

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Assignment: - 1 "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"

❃TOPIC OF THE BLOG: -

This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 101 - Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods, Sem - 1, 2023.

            "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"

TABLE OF CONTENTS:-

 ❍ Personal information

 ❍ Assignment Details

 ❍ Abstract

 ❍ Keywords

 ❍ Introduction

 

 ❍ Carpe Diem (Origin, Meaning, Use)

 ❍ Metaphysical Poetry

 ❍ Examples of Carpe Diem Poems

 ❍ Conclusion

 

 ❍ Work Cited

PERSONAL INFORMATION:-

 

Name: - Priyanshiba Kanaksinh Gohil

Batch No: M.A. Sem 1 (2023-2025)

Enrollment Number: - 5108230018 

E-mail Address: - priyabagohil7126@gmail.com

Roll Number: - 25

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS: -

Topic: -"Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical poetry"

Paper & subject code: - 101 - Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods & 22392

Submitted to: - Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar.

Date of Submission: - 01st December, 2023

About Assignment: - In this Assignment, I try to Explore the Essence of 'Carpe Diem' unveiling passion and fulfillment in Metaphysical Poetry.

ABSTRACT:- 

Carpe Diem is a style of poetry formulated during the English civil war. Literally Carpe Diem means, Seize the Day. It describes the passion of society and how their mentality on fulfillment of their lives. Metaphysical poetry was popularized after this, when the people started using science to explain what previous beliefs had based on religion. Song, Holy Sonnet 10, and To His Coy Mistress, all give a different but clear picture of what metaphysical and Carpe Diem poems are, though not all of them depict both elements. A paradox is a strong statement that contradicts itself, but in sense brings light to stimulate the imagination by the use of intellect. But think that we, are but turned aside to sleep, they who one another keep, Alive but parted be. Dunne infers that they will die, but nothing could separate a love as strong as theirs; so, will fall asleep resting on each other, together forever. This is a very creative and ingenious line because it gives extremely vague references, but at the same time gets the feeling off extremely well. This leads for the reader to imagine what he gets from the poem, broadening the poems horizons further than the author could have ever written literally. Song can also be looked at as being a Carpe Diem poem also. The First Stanza picked apart gives the sense that life is not long, don't think bad thoughts, and keep focused on the good, because you never know when you will die. In turn showing the same poem as a Metaphysical and Carpe Diem with a conjoined approach to stimulate the reader and get across the authors feelings.

KEYWORDS: 

Pluck the day, enjoy, seize, use, make use of.... 

INTRODUCTION: -

The first time I heard the phrase Carpe Diem, I wasn’t sure what to think. First of all, I had never heard either of the words used in the phrase. Secondly, after repeating the words in my head a few times to see if I was getting them mixed up with some other words that are actually in the English Language. I later came to figure out that these words weren’t in the English Language at all; they’re in the dead language of Latin. This phrase’s literal translation in English is “Seize the Day. There are a number of similar phrases that are popular today that might be easier to understand. The most recent, and possibly more popular, is Yolo, meaning You Only Live Once. These two phrase’s purposes are to tell people to live each day like it’s their last. Robert Herrick’s Poem: To the Virgins to Make Much of Time, is a perfect way to tell others how to live each day to the fullest when he says “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. This is the first stanza to his poem, and in my opinion is the best stanza of the poem. Herrick’s meaning behind this stanza is basically to Seize the Day. This stanza’s translation, to me, is to do what you want while you can because you will not live forever, and if you don’t do what you want today, then tomorrow you might not get the chance to do anything at all. The reason that we’re studying Carpe Diem is because of the movie Dead Poets Society. The setting of Dead Poets Society takes place in the 50’s at an all-boy’s prep school, where it always seems to be cold. A new English teacher, Mr. Keating, at the school inspires a group of kids to start an underground poetry reading group, where the students read poems written by dead poets, or written by themselves. All of the poems read at these meetings follow the same meaning: carpe diem. The name of this group is the Dead Poets Society. 

Carpe Diem (Origin, Meaning, Use)

Carpe diem, (Latin: “pluck the day” or “seize the day”) phrase used by the Roman poet Horace to express the idea that one should enjoy life while one can. Carpe diem is part of Horace’s injunction “carpe diem Quam minimum cédula postero,” which appears in his Odes (I.11), published in 23 BCE. It can be translated literally as “pluck the day, trusting as little as possible in the next one.” The phrase carpe diem has come to stand for Horace’s entire injunction, and it is more widely known as “seize the day. "This sentiment has been expressed in many literatures before and after Horace. It appears in ancient Greek literature, especially lyric poetry, and it intersects with the teachings of the Greek philosopher Epicurus and what would come to be known as Epicureanism. In English literature it was a particular preoccupation of poets during the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the Cavalier poets, Robert Herrick expressed a sharp sense of carpe diem in the first stanza of “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (included in Hesperides, published 1648):

Andrew Marvell, the most prominent of the Metaphysical poets, deployed the sentiment through a lover’s impatience in “To His Coy Mistress” (published posthumously in 1681). It begins with its speaker chiding the mistress of the poem’s title:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.

But time is short, the poem continues, so

Now let us sport us while we may.
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour.
Then languish in his slow-chapped power.

The earliest known uses of carpe diem in print in English date to the early 19th century. Robert Frost took on the subject with his poem “Carpe Diem,” first published in 1938. In it children are encouraged by a figure called Age to “‘Be happy, happy, happy / And seize the day of pleasure.’” By the 21st century the phrase could be found in the names of catering companies, gyms, and educational travel organizations.

Metaphysical Poetry 

In the book “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1179-1781)”, the author Samuel Johnson made the first use of the word Metaphysical Poetry. He used the term Metaphysical poets to define a loose group of the poets of the 17th century. The group was not formal and most of the poets put in this category did not know or read each other’s writings. This group’s most prominent poets include John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Abraham Cowley, George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Thomas Traherne, Richard Crashaw, and others. He noted in his writing that these poets had the same style of wit and conceit in their poetry.

Definition of Metaphysical poetry:

Metaphysical poetry is a genre of poetry that deals with deep and profound subjects like spirituality, religion, etc. It is highly intellectual form of poetry and presents the world to its readers in a different way. It asks questions that science cannot answer. Metaphysical poetry prompts the readers to question their reality and existence. It takes one beyond the physical world and gives new perspectives through its imagery, wit, and paradox.

Examples of Carpe Diem Poems

First of all, Holy Sonnet 10 is an excellent presentation of a Carpe Dieme and of the thought process behind the ideas of it. Holy Sonnet 10 represents a so-called obsession with death that the people living in the time frame acquired. They represented their feelings and suppressed lives with their poetry. The lifestyle of a person living during a civil war is an intense day-by-day struggle to live. Every second there is a chance that you will not live to see the next day. This inspired the authors to fill their poems with passion and a spontaneous attitude. Their attitude was not only spontaneous, but also fulfilling to their own personal nature. Carpe Diem was the reaction to the general population's life span decreasing

Second of all, To His Coy Mistress, is another Carpe Dime poem. It shows the time diminishing in the populous. As most other Carpe Dime poems, To His Coy Mistress, deals with the fulfillment of ones dreams and the taking over of ones life. This poem relates to a recent movie that was just released, American Beauty. In the movie the husband gets sick of sitting around and waiting for his own death. So he takes control of his life and does what makes him happy, and with little dismay, he was killed. He died happy and fulfilled, just like what the man into His Coy Mistress is trying to say. He wants to experience the pleasures of life before his time comes and Worms will get her virginity. 

Last of all, Song, by John Dunne, portrays both of these elements of mental status. A strong indication of, Song, relating to Carpe Diem and Metaphysical poetry are the techniques and devices used within them. Metaphysical conceits are a readily used device found in Metaphysical poems. A Metaphysical Conceit is an ingenious and unusual comparison. 

 conclusion:

As Metaphysical and Carpe Diem poems are sometimes used together in such ways as Song, by John Dunne, they can also be picked apart as separate and intricate poems by themselves. Metaphysical conceits and paradoxes bring the life and character out, influenced by the reader and his intellect; so, as Carpe Diem poems bring out the full-blossomed lives that were lived to the fullest degree possible. Both poem writing styles were unique and rebellious to their time frames, and created the opening for a more open-minded population that would lead to many more discoveries and innovations which would not have been possible without the poet's creativity and outpouring of feeling.

work cited:

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2023, September 22). carpe diem. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/carpe-diem

Free Essays - PhDessay.com. (2023). “Exploring the Essence of ‘Carpe Diem’: Unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical Poetry. 

 "Exploring the Essence of 'Carpe Diem': Unveiling Passion and Fulfillment in Metaphysical Poetry - PHDessay.com

Carpe Diem and Living Life to the Fullest. (2017, Apr 16). Retrieved from Carpe Diem Definition Essay Example - PHDessay.com 

What is Metaphysical Poetry? (Definition and Characteristics) - Literary English

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