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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”?