Thomas Gray
Comments & Themes
Topics for Discussion
--Thomas Gray has conventionally been considered Pre-Romantic. Identify aspects of his poems that can be said to prefigure the Romantic movement.
--Discuss the imagery of birds and trees in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”. In what ways do the main images cohere? Are any of them traditional or symbolic?
--Can the lyrical speaker of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” be identified with the poet himself?
--Why do you think was Gray’s purpose in mentioning John Hampden, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?
--Discuss the notions of the pastoral, the sublime and the picturesque in relation to Gray’s poems.
--Discuss the originality of the Epitaph in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.
--In what ways does the opening citation by Menander in “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” relate to the poem’s content?
---What role do memories play in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”?
-- Discuss the use of the traditional images of spring and paradise in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.
-- Discuss how suffering and evil are objectified or dramatised in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.
-- “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” has unanimously been considered Gray’s best poem. What, in your opinion, makes it better than “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”?