Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Things to Consider:
- The Graveyard School
- Elegy
- Class
Discussion
Questions:
1467:
- Explain: "The language of the
age is never the language of poetry" (1467).
"On the Death of a Favorite Cat" (1747)
1468:
- What are the "genii of the stream"
(15)?
- Explain the moral found in lines 40-42.
"Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" (ca. 1742-50)
- To whom is this poem
addressed?
- Describe the speaker's attitude toward the rustic
poor.
1469:
1470:
- Explain lines 41-44.
- Explain lines 57-60.
1471:
1472:
- Explain the epitaph
at the end.
Other Discussion Questions:
1467:
- What is a "Latinate phrase"(1467)?
- Explain Johnson's remarks on Gray's "Elegy."
"Ode
on the Death of a Favorite Cat":
- How might this poem compare with Pope's The Rape of the
Lock?
- Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem.
- Explain the relation of
William Blake's engraving (above) for this poem.
1468:
- What does Selima see in the second stanza?
- Explain: "What female heart can gold despise?/What
cat's averse to fish?" (23-24).
"Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard":
- What class does the
speaker occupy? Explain.
1469:
- What is the "lowing
herd" (2)?
- What are "drowsy
tinklings" (8)?
- What is a "moldering
heap" (14)?
- Explain lines 73-76.