Thomas Gray: The Progress of a Poet"The book is divided into five chapters. The first examines Gray's earliest poems and imitations for evidence of his sense of himself as poet, of prosody, diction, sources, or traditions to utilize. By chapter 2, Gray's impulses toward his goal as a poet become more evident, as he is manifestly determined toward a life of poetry. The "Elegy" occupies chapter 3 - his drafts and composition of the poem, and the poem itself, the resolution to his complex of problems as poet and as man. Close study of Gray's notebooks in chapter 4 shows that the Pindaric odes, "The Progress of Poesy" and "The Bard," though ostensibly radically different from the "Elegy," were conceived at the same time as the "Elegy" and thus draw crucial depictions of his movement toward serious revision of English poetic style and his own role as poet in society. Chapter 5 continues Gray's scholarly impulse that led to the study and imitation of Pindar, as he turned to Northern European sources for proof of poetic antiquity equal to the Greek. He found what he wanted in Welsh and Norse lore and wrote several poems imitating their style."--BOOK JACKET. |
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Page 45
... seems unarguable that Gray knew these poems thoroughly ; his precise use is less determinable , for he quoted and borrowed and paraphrased irrepressibly to the point that it becomes impossible to establish exact sources . Gray's essay ...
... seems unarguable that Gray knew these poems thoroughly ; his precise use is less determinable , for he quoted and borrowed and paraphrased irrepressibly to the point that it becomes impossible to establish exact sources . Gray's essay ...
Page 78
... seem to soothe " is tentative ; the " joy and youth " he scents is abridged in line 40 to " fearful joy " and is ... seems to promise a regalia of poetic diction , none of which Swift provides . Gray's narrator yearns for a " second ...
... seem to soothe " is tentative ; the " joy and youth " he scents is abridged in line 40 to " fearful joy " and is ... seems to promise a regalia of poetic diction , none of which Swift provides . Gray's narrator yearns for a " second ...
Page 134
... seems antithetical to values we associate with the history of learning ; " noble ” squints between that nobility indigenous to any person and that reserved for a certain class . The " rage " seems implausible , just as it is unlikely ...
... seems antithetical to values we associate with the history of learning ; " noble ” squints between that nobility indigenous to any person and that reserved for a certain class . The " rage " seems implausible , just as it is unlikely ...
Contents
Introduction | 9 |
Early English Poems | 44 |
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard | 105 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
accept achieved appear Bard become beginning believe Books British called Cambridge classical complete composition continued create Critical death diction early edition effects Elegy emotional English epitaph Essays Eton expression eyes feeling final Gray's hand hear history of poetry human imagination imitation Italy John language later Latin letter lines live London manuscript Mason means memory mind Muses narrator narrator's nature notes object observed opening original Oxford passion pastoral perhaps phrases Pindaric poem poet poetic poetry present problem Progress question reflection relation revision rhyme role says scene seems seen sense sonnet sound sources spirit Spring stanza suggests things Thomas Gray thought tradition translation understand University Press verse vision voice Walpole Welsh West West's writing written wrote York