SHELLEY'S ODE TO THE WEST WIND

Introduction

This poem was written in 1819 and published in 1820 along with Shelley's musical drama Prometheus Unbound. Shelley was living in Italy at that time. As Shelley tells us in a note, the poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood round the Arno, near Florence (in Italy). He wrote it on a day when the stormy wind was collecting the vapours that send the autumnal rains. At sunset, as Shelley had foreseen, there was a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by an exceptional thunder of of clouds and lightening.

It is one of Shelley's greatest poems. It has been called a 'matchless ode'. But it is not easy to understand. The main difficulty in understanding the poem arises from the abundance of similes and metaphors which follow one another with an astonishing quickness. In the course of the poem, Shelley passes from a magnificent realisation of nature's storm and peace to equally great self description. Finally he mingles nature and himself together in order to sing of the Golden Age of Mankind.

Critical Summary

Stanza 1: The opening stanza describes the activities of the West Wind on land. The West Wind drives the dead leaves before it just as the magician drives away a ghost by his approach. The West Wind scatters the seeds far and near and covers them with dust so that they are buried underground where they remain, like dead bodies in their graves, till the coming of spring when they sprout into plants which bear flowers filling the valley with sweet smells and attractive colours. The poet addresses the West Wind as a 'wild spirit' moving everywhere, and a destroyer (of dead leaves) and a preserver (of living seeds).

"Wild spirit, which art moving everywhere;

Destroyer and preserver; hear, Oh, hear!"

Stanza 11: The second stanza describes the activities of the West Wind in the air. The West Wind carries on its surface loose clouds which seems to have fallen from the sky just as withered leaves fall from the trees in autumn. The clouds floating on the surface of the West Wind are messengers of rain and lightening. The locks of the approaching storm are spread on the airy surface of the West Wind like the bright hair uplifted from the head of a frenzied Bacchante. Furthermore, the West Wind is the dirge of the dying year for which the closing night will be the dome of a big tomb vaulted with all the aggregated strength of the West Wind as seen in rain, lightning and hailstorm. The poet calls upon the West Wind to listen to him. This stanza is an example of the abstract imagery which characterises much of Shelley's poetry. It is remarkable also for its various similes and metaphors.

Stanza 111: The third stanza describes the effects of the West Wind on water. The West Wind awakens from sleep the blue Mediterranean which was dreaming of old palaces and towers which once stood on its shores. When the West Wind blows on the Atlantic, the waves rise on both sides to prepare a sort of passage for the West Wind, while far below, the plants growing at the bottom of the ocean tremble with fear and shed their leaves. The stanza is remarkable for its vivid imagery and for the manner in which the two oceans ____ the Mediterranean and the Atlantic ______ are personified. The phenomena alluded to in lines 36-42 is well known to naturalists. In a note, Shelley pointed out that the vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of rivers, and of lakes, sympathises with that of the land in the change of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce that change.

Stanza 1v: The poet here establishes a link between his own personality and the personality of the West Wind. He recalls his boyhood when he was a swift, energetic and uncontrollable as the West Wind. In his boyhood he could excel the speed of the West Wind and could accompany it on its wanderings over the sky. But now the misfortunes of life have crushed him. He is bleeding on the thorns of life helplessly. He wishes that he were a leaf, a wave, a cloud, so that the West Wind could lift him. He makes a pathetic appeal to the West Wind to come to his help:

"Oh, lift me as a wave, leaf, a cloud!

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed

One too like thee: tameless and Swift and Proud."

Stanza v: The final stanza includes the whole universe in its sweep. The poet appeals to the West Wind to treat him as a lyre and to blow on him as it blows on the forest. Like the forest, he too is passing through the autumn of his life. The West Wind blowing on him and on the forest will produce a sad but sweet music. Addressing the West Wind as 'Spirit fierce' and as 'impetuous one', he appeals to it to become one with him and to scatter his dead thoughts over the universe in order that these thoughts may bring about a new period in human history. He would like the West Wind to broadcast over the whole world his prophecy about the coming of the Golden Age:"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" In this stanza we find a clear expression of Shelley's idealism, his belief in the perfectibility of human nature and his belief in the golden age of mankind.

Explanation

Stanza 1 (Lines 1-14):

COLERIDGE'S

DEJECTION; AN ODE

Coleridge as a Poet

Coleridge (1772-1834) was both a poet and a critic. He was a close associate of Wordsworth and holds a premier position in the literature of Romantic Movement. Coleridge possesses the most vigorous mind among the English Romanticists of the first generation. But his works, his life and his thoughts are marked by an unhappy fate. Unable to cope with intellectual and artistic ambition, being a slave to opium, he scarcely completed any of his undertakings.

He collaborated with Wordsworth in the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) which announces the commencement of a new age in the history of English literature. With Wordsworth, when Coleridge wrote poems for the Lyrical Ballads, he earmarked the supernatural as his field and undertook to humanise and familiarise it. His aim was to make the supernatural appear natural. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Kubla Khan are poems written in this genre and by virtue of these poems he is regarded as the greatest poet of the supernatural.

Coleridge, like Wordsworth, was a great admirer of nature and his attitude towards it was influenced by the pantheistic philosophy of Wordsworth. His poems like The Eolian Harp and Frost at Midnight contain Wordsworthian view of nature. However later in his life he changed his attitude to Nature and expressed that we interpret the moods of Nature according to our own moods. We receive from nature only that which we give to it and in our life alone does nature live. This belief finds utterance in Dejection- An Ode.

Coleridge's talent to write narrative poetry finds expression in The Ancient Mariner, Christabel and Love. These poems have a medieval background. Coleridge was essentially a medievalist. There is a meditative note also in his poetry. He was reflective and speculative in temper. This temper is reflected in poems like Frost at Midnight, Dejection-An Ode etc.

To sum up Coleridge's poetic genius we may quote Stopford Brooks: "His best work is but little, but unique of its kind. All that he did excellently might be bound up in twenty pages but it should be bound up in pure gold." To his four dream poems, i.e The Ancient Mariner, Christabel, Kubla Khan and Love, if we add three more namely Dejection-An Ode, France-An Ode and Frost at Midnight we will realise the peculiar charm of Coleridge's magic verse.

THE POEM

Introduction

In the winter of 1801-02. the two causes of Coleridge's unhappiness, opium and domestic discord, worked havoc with him and brought him to despair. His creative imagination went awry while Wordsworth was at the height of his poetic activity. On April 4, 1802 when Wordsworth and Dorothy visited him, Coleridge composed,, atleast in part, the poem Dejection - An Ode which is a confession of his failure and one of the saddest poems of English literature. Meanwhile the poem is glorious also in its attitude when the stricken runner who sinks in the race lifts up his head and cheers the friend who strides onwards.

On October 4, 1802 the poem appeared in the Morning Post. The poem is an ode in its form only and in its contents it is a conversation. In stead of being addressed to Dejection it is addressed to William Wordsworth. In the printed newspaper form it purports to be directed to someone named Edmund. In Coleridge's edition of his collected works it is addressed to Lady; but in the three extant manuscripts the word is sometimes William and sometimes Wordsworth.

In this sublime poem Coleridge gives expression to an experience of double consciousness. His sense perceptions are vivid and agreeable; his inner state is faint, blurred and unhappy. He sees but cannot feel. His power of feeling has been paralysed by chemically induced excitement of his brain. The power 'to see' stands aloof, individual, critical and very mournful. By 'seeing' he means perceiving and judging; by 'feeling' he means that which impels action. He suffers, but the pain is dull, and he wishes it were keen, for so he should awoke from lethargy and recover unity atleast. But nothing from outside can restore him. The sources of soul's life are within. Even from the depths of his humiliation and self loathing he rebukes his friend for thinking it can be otherwise.

O William! we receive but what we give
And in our life alone does nature live.

In every other respect, Coleridge praises Wordsworth and humbles himself before him. Wordsworth has not lost the birth right of joy but Coleridge groans that 'I have lost my gift of song.'
Suspends what Nature gave me at my birth
My shaping spirit of imagination

His own race ends prematurely and he passes the torch to the survivor:

Dear William, friend devoutest of my choice
Thus may'st thou ever more rejoice!

Critical Summary

The poet sees the old moon in the lap of the new and this, according to an old belief, foretells the coming of rain and a furious storm. In a few moments the wind actually develops into a storm and rain starts falling with a loud sound. The sounds of rain and storm have often in the past raised the poet's spirits though at the same time they filled him with awe. He welcomes the rain and the storm now because it is possible that their sounds might awaken his dull pain and make it move and live.

The poet then describes the kind of grief that has been weighing upon his heart. It is dark, drear, drowsy and unimpassioned grief. Although the poet has been gazing at the western sky and its peculiar hue of yellow green throughout the peaceful and balmy evening, he has been in a cheerless and spiritless mood. He has watched the beauty of the clouds and the stars but he has not been able to feel that beauty because of the grief that has taken a firm hold on his mind. The poet laments of all happiness and joy in his life. His spirits are drooping. All the beautiful objects of nature are unable to remove the overwhelming weight of this grief from the heart. It is not from external objects that happiness can flow to a man's heart. The heart itself is the real source of animation and excitement. When this inner source of animation and excitement had dried up, a man cannot expect to experience these feelings by gazing at the beauty of external objects.

Addressing his wife Sara ('Lady'-- originally the poem was addressed to William Wordsworth) the poet says that we get from nature what we give to it. Nature seems to be full of life because we ourselves endow it with life. In our life alone does nature live. If we find nature to be in a joyful or festive mood, it is because we are ourselves in that mood. If we find nature in a mood of mourning it is because we are ourselves in that mood. The objects of nature themselves are cold and lifeless. If we want to see anything noble or sublime in nature, our own souls must send forth a light, a lustre, or a radiance to envelope the objects of nature. Our own soul must send forth a sweet and potent voice which will endow the sounds of nature with sweetness and power. This light and this glory which our souls can send forth is not only beautiful in itself but it enables us to create beautiful things also. The source of this glory or light is joy in the heart. This joy is given by nature to pure hearted persons only. All the sweet sounds that delight the ear and all the beautiful sights that delight the eyes, flow from the joy in our hearts. All music is an echo of that sweet voice, the source of which is joy in our hearts, and all beautiful paintings are a reflection of the light which flows from the joy in our hearts. The poet recalls the time in his past life when, though there were difficulties in his way, the joy in his heart enabled him to make light of his distress. In those days even his misfortunes served as material for his fancy to weave visions of delight. That was the time of hopefulness. But now the sorrows of life have crushed him. But it is not the loss of his joy that makes him sad. What grieves him is the decline and the weakening of his inborn gift of the creative power of imagination. His mind is now chiefly occupied with metaphysical speculation which tends to suppress his poetic imagination. Metaphysical thinking has taken almost complete possession of his soul and is crushing his poetic powers.

The poet then dismisses the depressing thoughts that have been haunting his mind and turns his attention to the storm that has been raging outside. Hearing the sound produced by the wind blowing against the strings of the lute, he feels that it is like the prolonged scream of a human being who is being tortured and who cries in his agony. He thinks that it would have been much better if the wind, instead of playing upon the lute, were to blow against bare rock, a mountain lake, a lightning struck tree, a high pine grove, or a lonely house haunted by evil spirit. It seems to him that the wind is celebrating a devil's Christmas. He addresses the wind as an actor and as a mighty poet who can reproduce all kinds of tragic sounds. The sounds that the wind is producing are compared by the poet to those produced by the panicky retreat of a defeated army and to the cries of pain uttered by trampled men groaning in their pain and shuddering with cold. Then there is a pause, a brief interval of deep silence. This pause is followed again by sounds which are this time less deep and less loud than before. These sounds are compared by the poet to the pathetic poem written by Thomas Otway about a lost child sometimes crying in bitter grief and fear and sometimes screaming aloud in the hope that its mother would come to its rescue.

It is midnight, says the poet but there seems to be little possibility of his falling asleep. He would not like his beloved wife to have such an experience of sleeplessness. He would like her to enjoy a sound sleep and to forget her worries. He ends the poem with a prayer for her happiness and joy.

Critical Appreciation

Written in 1802, this poem is Coleridge's Swan Song. It pathetically mourns his spiritual and moral losses. It is a deeply personal and autobiographical poem conveying his mental state at the time. It records a fundamental change in his life and is a lament on the decline of his creative imagination

Coleridge felt that his inborn gift of imagination was decaying and that his interest was shifting to philosophy. In other words, he found that he was becoming more and more a philosopher or thinker or less and less of a poet. This change greatly distressed him. He was grief stricken at the thought that his interest in abstruse research was crushing his poetic talent. The poem is an expression of that grief:

"A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear,

A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief

Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,

In word, or sigh, or tear ---"

Seldom has grief found such tragic expression as in this poem which has been called "the poet's dirge of infinite pathos over the grave of creative imagination". The poem proceeds with an ever deepening sadness, each stanza charged with heavy gloom.

A very important point about this poem is that Coleridge here contradicts his own previous view of nature, thus challenging Wordsworth's nature-creed also. In The Eolian Harp and Frost at Midnight, Coleridge had expressed a belief in pantheism-- the view that nature is a living whole, that a divine spirit passes through all objects of nature, that man can establish a spiritual intercourse with nature, and that nature exercises an enabling and educative influence upon man. But in this poem, Coleridge completely denies this belief. He asserts that Nature has no life of her own-- that it is we who attributed life to her:

"O Lady! We receive but what we give

And in our life alone does Nature live:

Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud."

No longer can Coleridge gain from nature the joy she used to give him because he has no joy in his heart to meet her half way. He has discovered that nature can give no joy to those who have no joy already in their hearts.

"Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power

which wedding Nature to us gives in dower"

The ode contains some very vivid and concrete imagery. The poet sees the new moon winter bright with the old moon in her lap; the swelling storm with night shower falling loud and fast; the stars gliding between or behind the stars:

"I see the old Moon in her lap foretelling

The coming on of rain and squally blast.

And oh! that even now the gusts are swelling,

And the slant night shower driving loud and fast!"

More vigorous and forceful images are found in the lines where the sounds of the storm are compared first to the rushing of a defeated army with groans of trampled and wounded men and then to the alternate moaning and screaming of a frightened child who has lost its way home:

"What tell'st thou now about?

'Tis of the rushing of an host in rout,

with groans of trampled men, with smarting wounds---

At once they groan with pain, and shudder with cold!"

and

"'Tis of a little child

upon a lonesome wild

Not far from home, but she hath lost her way;

And now moans low in bitter grief and fear,

And now screams loud, and hopes to make her mother hear."

These are not the only pictures in the poem. We have also the images of the storm raging over a rock or a tree, a pine grove or a haunted house and of its celebrating the Devil's Christmas in the month of showers, of dark brown gardens and of peeping flowers.

The poem ends on a note of tenderness for his wife. He prays to sleep to visit his beloved. May she rise with light heart, gay fancy, cheerful eyes!

Interesting comparisons and contrasts occur between this poem and Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality. As in Wordsworth's poem, we have here the poet's reference to his past joy and a description of his present mood of grief. There was a time when even misfortunes had an aspect of happiness, but now "afflictions bow me down to earth." These lines also remind similar lines in Shelley's Ode to the West Wind:

"If even I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven

-----------------------------------------------

I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!"

In Wordsworth's Ode, grief finds relief and ends in joy; in Dejection- an Ode grief finds no relief and ends in despair. It is morning in Wordsworth's ode, midnight in Coleridge's. In the former it is May and the sun shines warm; in the latter it is the month of showers. Wordsworth hears the happy shouts of children; Coleridge hears the wind screaming in agony. Like Wordsworth" ode, this one is irregular in structure and stanza formation.

Paraphrase

Stanza 1 (Lines 1-20)

Well! If the poet, who wrote the grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence, was correct in his forecast of weather, this night, which is so calm at this time, will not pass without being distributed by winds which are more active than those which have broken up that cloud into slow moving fragments or than the dull, melancholic, breeze which is producing mournful sounds and which gently touches the strings of this lute on which the god of wind is playing and which should have been silent. For behold! the new moon is wintry bright. It is covered by a pale ghostly light which seems to be floating over it. But the moon has an edge of a silvery colour all around it. I see the old moon in the lap of the new, and it foretells the coming of rain and storm which will blow furiously. And oh! already is the wind developing into a storm and rain has started falling in a slanting direction. The rain drops are falling rapidly and are producing a loud sound. The sounds of the rain and storm have often raised my spirits in the past, though at the same time they created a terrifying impression on me and send my mind wandering out of doors. It is possible that these sounds might produce in me their customary thrill. They might awaken this pain which benumbs me and might lend some movement to it.

Stanza 11 (Lines 21-38)

Mine is a grief which does not cause any piercing sensation. It is empty, thick and dull. It is a suppressed, sleepy kind of grief that causes no excitement and that finds no natural outlet or relief in words, or sighs or tears. O Lady! I have been gazing on the western sky and its peculiar hue of yellow green throughout this evening which was so peaceful and sweet, and I have been in a cheerless and spiritless mood. The song of the throstle singing over there has been inducing in me thoughts of other things. And I am still gazing and I am doing so with a perfectly vacant eye. I am gazing at those thin clouds which appear in fragments and which here and there, look like parallel lines. Although it is the clouds that are moving, it seems that the stars behind them are in motion. The stars appear to be floating behind clouds and sometimes between clouds. When the stars are not screened by the clouds, they look bright; when the clouds cover them, their light becomes dim, but they continue to be visible even then. The thin semi circular moon over there seems to be fixed, as if it has its root in that portion of the blue sky where there are neither clouds nor stars. I see all these objects of Nature looking so beautiful and lovely. But although I see their beauty, I dont feel it (because my heart is in the grip of a grief which has rendered me completely cheerless and spiritless).

Stanza 111 (Lines 39-46)

I have lost all happiness and joy and my spirits are now drooping. All the beautiful objects of nature are unable to remove the overwhelming weight of grief from my heart. Even if I were to keep gazing for ever at the beautiful green light that seems to stay on in the Western sky, it would be a futile effort because I would not draw any comfort from it. The heart itself is the real source of excitement and animation. When the inner source of excitement and animation has dried up, I can not expect to experience these feelings by gazing at the beauty of the external objects.

Stanza 1v (Lines 47-58)

O Lady! We get from nature what we have transferred to it from our own hearts. Nature seems to be full of life, because we endow it with our own life. If we find nature in a joyful and festive mood, it is because we are ourselves in that mood. The objects of nature are cold and lifeless. If the poor, lifeless, careworn people of the world want to see anything of a high or noble quality in nature, their own soul must send forth a sweet and powerful voice which will endow the sounds of nature with sweetness.

Stanza v (Lines 59-75)

O pure hearted Lady! You need not ask me what the nature of this sweet and powerful voice in the soul is. Nor is it necessary to for you to ask me what the nature of this light, this lustre, and this radiance is and in what it has its existence. This light or this glory is not only beautiful in itself but it enables a man to create beautiful things. The sources of this light or glory, O pure hearted Lady! is joy in the heart. This joy is given by nature to no one except to the pure hearted people in their purest moments of life. It is the essence of life and issues forth from the vitality of human being. Only the purest hearted people are the recipients of this unique gift if nature, namely joy. This joy enables them to see a new earth and a new heaven which the vulgar and proud persons cannot even dream of. Joy is the source of that sweet voice; joy is the souce of that bright light. It is because of the joy in our own hearts that we feel happy. All the sweet sounds that delight the ear and all the beautiful sights which delight the eyes flow from that joy in our hearts. All music is an echo of that sweet voice (the source of which is the joy in our hearts) and all beautiful paintings are a reflection of that light (which flows from the joy in our hearts).

Stanza v1 (Lines 76-93)

There was a time when, though there were difficulties in my way, the joy in my heart enabled me to make light of my suffering. In those days, even my misfortunes served merely as material for my fancy to weave visions of delight. That was the time when hope grew around me like a climbing plant growing around a tree. The pleasure even of hopes which did not belong to me seemed in those days to be my own (just as the leaves and fruits of a plant growing around a tree seem to belong to the tree itself). But now the sorrows of life have crushed me and brought me from the upper regions down to the earth. Nor do I feel sorry that these misfortunes deprive me of my joy. But what grieves me is that each fit of depression renders my inborn gift of the creative power of imagination inoperative. All that I can do now is to remain silent and patient under the stress of my incapacity to give poetic expression to my deepest feelings. The gift of poetic imagination with which I was endowed by nature is being suppressed by my philosophical and metaphysical tendencies. The gift of poetic imagination was my only treasure in life, the only quality on which my life was based. But my metaphysical tendencies which were only a part of my mental make up have weakened and crushed my real nature which was poetically constituted. Now metaphysical thinking has taken almost complete possession of my soul and become a habit of the mind.

Stanza v11 (Lines 94-125)

O poisonous thoughts which have enveloped my mind and which are like a fearful dream of reality! I dismiss you. I turn my attention from you and listen to the wind which has been raging without my having taken any notice of it. The sound produced by the wind striking the strings of the lute is like the prolong scream of a human being who is being tortured and who cries in his agony. You wind, who are blowing furiously outside, it would be much better if you, instead of playing upon the lute, were to blow against a bare rock, a mountain lake, a lightning struck tree, a high pine grove which no woodman has ever set foot, or a lonely house which has long been believed to be haunted by evil spirits. You are a reckless musician playing upon the lute. The sounds that you are producing are worse than those which are heard during the bleak months of winter. It seems as if you are celebrating a devil's Christmas among the blossoms, buds and tremulous leaves in this rainy season when the garden looks dark brown and the flower peep from behind the leaves. You are an actor, able to reproduce fully all sounds of pain and suffering. You are like a powerful poet. You can blow with great fury, thus emulating a frenzied poet. What sounds are you producing now? You are producing sounds similar to those produced by the panicky retreat of a defeated army, with cries of pain of trampled men with painful wounds, groaning in pain and at the same time shuddering with cold. But now there is a pause. There is a brief interval of the deepest possible silence. All that noise similar to the sounds of retreating army, with the groans, trembling and shuddering of trampled soldiers, has ended. Now the wind produces different sounds, sounds which are less deep and less loud, and which express less of fear and something of delight. These sounds are like the pathetic poem written by Thomas Otway about a lost girl roaming about on a lonely stretch of territory, not far from home. The wind produces sometimes sounds of bitter grief and fear and sometimes it screams aloud like that lost girl who hoped that her mother would hear her cries and come to her rescue.

Stanza v111 (Lines 126-139)

It is midnight, but I have almost no thought of sleeping. May my friend have such experiences of sleeplessness only rarely! May soothing sleep descend upon her and make her forget her worries! May this storm be only a kind of mountain birth! May all the stars shine brightly above her house and continue shining in silence as if they were watching the sleeping earth! May she get up from bed with a care free heart! May she feel happy and bright and may her eyes express a cheerful mood! May her spirits be raised by joy and may her voice be sweetened with happiness! May all living creatures from one end of the world to the other dedicate their existence to her! May their existence become a vital force to add to the energy of her spirit! O dear and simple hearted Lady! May you be guided by heaven! You are the most faithful friend of my choice. May you feel happy for ever and ever!

GRAY'S
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

Introduction

Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is among the greatest and most popular poems in the English language. Despite certain flaws found by the critics and despite the difference of opinions this poem has continued to delight and enthrall the readers ever since it was written. With its deep human interest, its profundity and nobility of sentiment, the stateliness of its measure and its perfect style and diction it speaks to every one, for it expresses to perfection what every one feels. According to Douglas Bush it is the best known secular poem in the language in which a tender heart beats under the stiff brocade of style. Even Dr. Johnson, who was not very much pleased with Gray's Pindaric odes, acknowledges the beauty and greatness of the Elegy when he remarks: "The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo."

Popularity of the Poem

The popularity of the Elegy has transcended the limits of time and place. It has been widely read and admired in all places and in all times. Grierson and Smith regard it as the most widely known poem of the 18th century alongwith Oliver Goldsmith's Deserted Village. And it is probably still the most popular and the best loved poem in the English language.
The Elegy was first circulated among Gray's friends in a manuscript form. They were highly impressed by the poem and thought it fit to be published. One of his friends Walpole arranged for its publication. It was first published by Robert Dodsley on Feb 15, 1751. The poem was an instant hit and elicited favourable response and several reprints were made in Gray's own time. It has been translated into a large number of languages like Greek, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Italian, Japaneese etc.

Reasons of Popularity

Several critics have advanced many theories for the immense popularity enjoyed by Gray's Elegy. Matthew Arnold quotes Dr. Gregory as writing "Gray told me with a great deal of acrimony that the elegy owes its popularity entirely to the subject, and the public would have received it as well if it had been written in prose." This remark implies that the poetic merits or style have nothing to contribute to the popularity of the poem. It is certainly an understatement about the poetic beauties of the poem.
In fact, the popular appeal of the Elegy may be said to be due to both its theme and poetic techniques. It deals with the theme of death and the transitoriness of all worldly glory and human achievements. It also deals with the lot of common men on this earth. These universally appealing themes contributed much to the enduring popularity of the poem. The melancholic note of the poem is in keeping with the poetic taste of Gray's age and it enhances its appeal.
However, the poetic beauties of the poem are no less important than its theme. Gray's handling of the elegiac quatrain is superb. The language and diction are simple and devoid of unnecessary ornamentation. There is a dignity and grace in the movement of verse. An apt use of monosyllabic words, balanced phrases and parallel structure lend a beauty and force to the lines of each quatrain. There is a strong autobiographical note in the poem which may appeal to many readers. But what is most appealing is the realisation caused by the poem that all 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave'. It would not be proper to undermine either of the two elements - thought and style - in the poem. Both are complementary and both add beauty and appeal to the poem.

Date, Occasion and Circumstances of Composition

It is difficult to assign any exact date of composition of the Elegy. However, a rough idea can be formed on the basis of certain evidences. Gray's friend Marson has mentioned some of Gray's poems written in August 1742 in his Memories. He remarked "I am inclined to believe that the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was begun, if not completed, at this time also." On the basis of this remark, the Elegy may be said to have been begun in 1742 during the period of Gray's annual stay at Stoke Poges. In the autumn of 1746, Gray wrote to a friend Wharton from Stoke Poges: "The Muse. I doubt, is gone, and has left me in far worse company; if she returns, you will hear of her." This means that he was not able to write much of the poem by 1746. In fact, he could write only some portions of it, that he referred to, in another letter to Wharton, as 'a few autumnal verses.' According to Walpole "The Churchyard was posterior to Richard West's death (1742) atleast three to four years." It is most likely that the Elegy was begun about the year 1746 at Stoke Poges or atleast planned there. Gray may have taken some stanzas, already composed, to Cambridge, and added some more stanzas to it, there. It may said to have been left incomplete for sometime, then taken up again and completed by the time of the death of his aunt Mary Antrobus, in Nov 1749. Gray enclosed a copy of of the complete poem to his friend Walpole with a letter which he wrote on June 12, 1750 from Stoke Poges.
The Elegy is usually said to have been written to commemorate Gray's friend, Richard West who died in 1742. The Youth referred to in the poem is usually identified as West. Some critics identify this youth with Gray himself. However, Joseph Foladore opposes the idea of identifying the youth with either West or Gray. He remarks : "attempts to make either West or Gray, the subject of the Elegy invariably pauperise the poem and reflect profoundly on the author's artistic intelligence." Even if the poem is said not to be directly influenced by West's death, its gloomy emotional tone may be said to be due to Gray's sense of loss over his friend's early death.

The Title and Different Versions of the Poem

'Stanzas wrote in Country Churchyard' was the title which Gray had originally given to the poem as it exists in early draft in the form of Eton College manuscript. It was on the suggestion of his friend Marson that he altered the title to the present one. The poem, under the new title, exists in the form of two manuscripts preserved at Pembroke College and the British museum. In its final published version, the poem is included in two books, Bentley's Designs (1753) and Gray's Poems (1768).
The poem, as existing in the form of Eton College manuscript, contains only 22 stanzas including those four concluding stanzas which were later omitted from the expanded version. Gray thoroughly revised and expended the poem. In its present form, the poem consists of thirty two quatrains or 128 lines in all. With the addition of new stanzas the size of the poem was increased. Certain minor variations were also introduced. An example may be found in the 15th stanza (lines 57-60) where the names of Cato, Tully and Caesar were replaced by those of Hampden, Milton and Cromwell probably in order to avoid the use of classical allusions. The three stanzas constituting the 'Epitaph' were also added in the revised version. Objections were raised against the addition of the epitaph and poet W S Landor ridiculed this saying "tin kettle tied to the poem's tail. Moreover, in the revised version personal references were allotted more space. The concluding three stanzas are concerned with the poet himself and contain a repetition of what has already been said about him in the main body of the poem.

Sources and Background

Like many great poems, Gray's Elegy owes much to several sources, and belongs to certain traditions continuing in the first half of the 18th century. The tradition of 'landscape' poetry to which Thomson's Seasons and Pope's Windsor Forest belong, may be said to have provided Gray with an idea of the type for his Elegy. Gray's philosophical musings against the background of natural scenery in the countryside, have been inspired by this tradition. The melancholy and subjectivity of the 'Grave yard' poetry accounts for the tone of the Elegy.
There are other sources on which Gray may be said to have drawn much. The personified abstractions appearing in the Elegy have been inspired by the neo classical poetry of his time. The moralising manner of the Elegy owes much to that of the poems of the 17th and 18th centuries. For the stanzas employed in the poem, Gray owes much to several existing poems. The quatrains in pentameter is modeled on the stanzas used by James Hammond in his Love Elegies which were adaptations from the Latin poet Tibullus. According to D C Tovey "the quatrain of ten syllables in which the Elegy was written had been used before, but never, perhaps with conspicuous success, except in Dryden's Annus Mirabilis. In Gray's hands it acquired a new beauty and a music of its own." Gray's elegiac quatrains, though based on the stanzas used by other poets, combine beauty, melody, and graceful movement, and thus prove an improvement on the earlier models.
John Butt has nicely summed up the various sources of thought, content and setting in the The Elegy: "The Curfew itself he drawn from a bell in Dante's Purgatorio that from far off seemed to lament the dying day, though he must also have recalled it sounding in Ll Pensoroso.... . He could not resist adopting Lucretius's pity for the dead house holder, a vignette that was later to appeal both to Collins and Burns and as he re-expressed it in the sixth stanza of the Elegy, he shows by a touch here and there that he recalled both Dryden's translation and Thomson's adaptation of it in Winter."

Theme and Subject

The themes dealt in the Elegy are familiar, and there is nothing original in them. According to Douglas Bush "the Elegy is a mosaic of traditional motifs, classical and modern." The dominant theme of the poem is death. It deals with the death of the rude fore fathers of the village, death as a common occurence in the world and the anticipated death of the youth who may be the poet himself or the his friend West in whose memory the poem has been written. In fact the shadow of death hovers over the poem. The opening line itself, with the curfew tolling 'the knell of the parting day' is indicative of death.
Another theme treated in the Elegy is the transitoriness of all human glory and joy. The poet attempts to show that all 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave.' By implication, the futility of all human ambitions and aspirations is hinted at. The contrast between the lives of the rich and poor or the privileged and the unprivileged forms another theme in the poem. The poet shows how the poor are not in a position to enjoy the luxuries and happiness of life in this world. Their poverty proves an obstacle in the path of their progress. But this poverty is a blessing in disguise. If it does not allow people to rise higher, it also restrains them from doing evil, by limiting their power to do so. The rich, on the other hand, possess the power and means to do good to themselves and the world. But they also have powers to commit mischief and bring destruction on innocent people.
The poem also deals with the desire for fame, the desire to be remembered after death. This theme is treated along with other themes in the poem. The poet shows how even the poor rustics try to perpetuate their memory through inscriptions on some 'frail memorial' decked with 'uncouth rhymes' and 'shapeless sculpture'.
Despite the dominance of the theme of death, the Elegy also presents a nostalgic longing for life. It shows how no man dies without casting one longing lingering look behind. A desire for sympathy and for being remembered after death is present in the poem.
Thus the Elegy deals with a number of themes. These themes may not be original but Gray's manner of treating them has lent a force and urgency to them.

Critical Summary of the Poem

The Elegy is a poem consisting of 128 lines divided into 32 quatrains including three stanzas devoted to the epitaph. Each quatrain is self contained and usually conveys a complete sense. The movement of thought from one stanza to another takes place in a smooth manner. The structure of the whole poem is skillfully organised and gives the impression of a carefully designed edifice.

The first stanza (lines 1-4) presents a beautiful picture of the natural scene in the evening, and sets the tone and atmosphere of the poem. The day is over and the cattle are moving slowly after the day's toil. The ploughmen, fatigued after the day's toil, are returning home. The poet/speaker is left alone engulfed in darkness like the rest of the world.

All this description is highly pictorial in manner and conjures up beautifully the gloomy atmosphere of the evening. Perhaps, the poet aims at preparing the readers to read about his gloomy and pensive thoughts. Graham Hough remarks "Gray is here far less concerned with nature as an object of contemplation than with the readers -- the readers whom he wishes to lull into a resigned, acquiescent, summer evening frame of mind."

Stanza 11 and 111 continue the description of the calm and quiet atmosphere of the evening. While the darkness slowly descends on earth, 'the glimmering landscape' fades, and the atmosphere is calm and still. This calm and stillness is disturbed only by the noise made by the wheeling beetle and the tinkling of the drowsy cattle in the 'distant fold'. The breaking of the silence of the evening is also caused by the 'moping owl' from the 'ivy mantled' tower, who complains to the moon about the solitary traveler who has encroached into his solitary kingdom of solitude.

If in the first stanza, there is fine verbal imagery, in these two stanzas, beautiful auditory images have been presented. The use of alliteration and onomatopoeia (as in drowsy tinkling) is remarkable.

Stanza 1v - v11 contain a touching reference to the rude fore fathers of the village who lie buried beneath the shade of the yew tree. They are enjoying a lasting sleep and cannot be aroused by the touch of the morning breeze or the twittering of the swallow, or the clarion call of the cock, or the 'echoing horn'. They will now not enjoy the comforts and privileges of domestic life, that they enjoyed while they were alive. The fire will not burn in their hearths, the house wife will no longer keep busy in her domestic work, and the children will not rush to their father to welcome him back home by climbing up his knees and sharing his loving kiss. The poet describes how, during their life time, these dead ancestors of the village used to plough the hard fields and reap the harvest. They used to drive their cattle joyfully to the field and when they struck at the trees to chop them, these trees yielded to their stroke. These fore fathers thus performed, during their life time, the normal activities and lived a simple happy life, as any body in the village would do.

Now dead, they cannot perform any of these activities. Lyly Glazier believes "each rude fore father of the hamlet has become a type for man kind. There is thus a double Every man in the poem -- the poet observer who is every man still alive and reflecting about death, and each rude fore father, who is Every man already dead and underground. They merge together later in the poem, when the poet suddenly projects himself into his own grave and from there reflects about his own hopeless desire for immortality."

In stanzas v111 - x1 the poet asks the ambitious and highly placed people not to mock at the 'useful toil', 'homely joys' and 'destiny obscure' of the poor. According to him, all the pride and glory and power associated with beauty, pomp and wealth, is transitory, and awaits the final doom. The poet advises the proud men not to blame these poor people if grand memorials are not erected to commemorate them or high sounding praises are not heaped on them after their death. He is of the view that by erecting memorials or busts of these dead men, we cannot bring them back to life. Similarly, songs of praise and honour cannot persuade death to spare their lives. Death is inevitable and will come to all whether they be rich or poor. The theme of contrast between rich and poor, the great and the humble, is referred to in these stanzas. The difference between rich and poor is illusory so far as death is concerned. Death is a great leveller. According to Lyly Glazier "just as the preceding stanzas presented the paradox of death in life for the obscure country men, so these four stanzas present the same paradox for the honoured and flattered great. Life is for all an ironic paragraph ending in death."

The next seven stanzas (x11 - xv111) present the poet's view about the overpowering of life by death, which makes any human achievement by the poor people impossible. The dead people burried in the churchyard had much potentialities for development. If chance had been given they might have become great men, great politicians, great poets. But their enthusiasm was chilled by poverty and they could not benefit from the rich treasures of human knowledge. The poet believes that many men remain unknown like gems that lie hidden in the dark caves of ocean, and like many a flower which grows in the desert where its beauty and fragrance remain unenjoyed and unadmired. Similarly, among those dead forefathers of the village, there may be somebody who might have become great like Hampden, Milton and Cromwell. But their merits remained unrecognized and their talents unutilised. It was not their destiny to command respect and receive praise in the senate or to defy pain and ruin. Nor was it in their lot to make their country happy and prosperous, and thus to become famous in history.

However, if these poor people were restrained from becoming great and famous, and their powers of doing good were held in check, their capacity for harming others was also limited by their inability to do much in life. Their fate confined their crimes or forbade them to ascend the throne by violent methods or gaining any other advantage through cruel means. These people did not have to hide truth or supress feelings of shame or to foster luxury and pride through flattery. The poet means to point out here both the advantages and disadvantages of death. If it deprives man of his chances to become great and renowned and to do good to others, it also restrains him from acts involving cruelty, selfishness and violence. In a way, therefore, death is good for man.

In stanza x1x, the poet describes the life led by the dead forefathers. According to him, they never tried to give up the quiet tenor of their life which was lived in aloofness from the maddening struggles of people in this world. They led a retired life in seclusion and peace. The poet thus points to the unambitious life of the poor as contrasted with the life of the rich and great whose lives are usually full of ambitions, luxury and hectic activities.

Stanzas xx and xx1 convey the efforts to perpetuate the memory of the dead rustics. To protect the bodily remains of these people from insult a 'frail memorial' has been erected which has been decorated with 'uncouth rhymes' written by some illiterate poet in their memory and with 'shapeless sculpture'. This memorial reminds one of these dead people, produces feelings of pity and sympathy in one's heart, and inspires the passer's by to pay a tearful tribute to them. The illiterate muse or stone cutter poet has engraved their names, years of birth and death and the text of Bible that teach them to accept death gracefully.

This brings us to the end of the first part of the movement of the poem. The second part may be said to consist of stanzas xx11 - xxx11. "The double irony of man's existence is exposed in an antithesis which divides the poem into nearly equal parts -- the first part (stanza 1-21) governed by the concept of the skeleton beneath the skin, and the second (stanzas 22-32) governed by the voice of life crying out of the ashes of the dead."

Stanzas xx11 and xx111 express the dead men's nostalgic feeling for the world and their desire to be remembered and honoured after their death. Nobody wants to leave this world as a prey to 'dumb forgetfulness'. Nobody goes away from this world without desiring to be remembered after death and without casting one longing lingering look behind. The dying man desires some dear person to shed tears on his death as a mark of mourning. Even from his grave, the dead man desires to be remembered with love and sympathy. Even in the ashes of the dead man, there are the sparks of a craving for love and sympathy of his fellow beings, which is natural in man. These two stanzas nicely depict a man's desire for the perpetuation of his memory after his death.

Stanzas xx1v - xx1x describe the fate of the poet himself or of the speaker. The person addressed to in these stanzas may be an imaginary person or an actual poet with whom Gray may have been acquainted during his stay at Stoke Poges or Gray himself. He relates the 'artless tale' about the 'unhonoured dead' in this poem. Someday some wayfarer may come, and enquire about his fate. Then some old peasant will tell this wayfarer (some kindered spirit) that he had usually seen the poet at dawn rushing towards the upland so as to reach there before sunrise. There beneath the beech, he would lie down and keep looking at the murmuring stream. He would wander there muttering crazily as if he were alone and full of anxieties or had felt frustration in love. The old peasant would further tell they wayfarer that one day he did not find the poet on his favourite spot. Nor was he there the next day. The following day his body was seen being carried away towards the churchyard where he was burried. The peasant would ask the wayfarer to approach the poet's grave and read the epitaph engraved on it.

Thus death seems to have overpowered the poet whom was writing about the death of the rustic forefathers of the village and pointing out their desire to be remembered after death. The similar desire of the poet is fulfilled by the engraving of the Epitaph on the grave. In these stanzas preceeding the Epitaph, Lyly Glazier finds "a note of mawkish self-pity, which lends weight to the belief that Gray wrote this poem in a fit of self commiseration to find consolation for the world's neglect."

The last three stanzas of the poem (xxx-xxx11) constitute the Epitaph supposed to have been engraved on the grave of the poet speaker. The poet speaker, referred to in the Epitaph as 'A youth to fortune and fame unknown', may be Gray's friend Richard West in whose memory the Elegy is said to have been written, or Gray himself, or some imaginary rustic stone cutter poet. His identity is a matter of controversy among critics. According to James Sutherland, the narrator of the poem and the subject of the Epitaph "are the same person and that person is described as an educated young gentleman, not as an unlettered village stone cutter."

The Epitaph describes an obscure youth of humble birth and melancholic nature. This youth was unknown to fortune and fame, but he acquired much knowledge and learning. He was very sincere and generous. His life was full of misery and sorrow; but God recompensed him for his gifts, in the form of a friend. The concluding four lines of the Epitaph advise the reader not to ask to disclose or discuss his merits or his weaknesses. Both these are of no consequence now that he has resigned himself to God, whose grace he hopes to receive in the end.

The Epitaph is said by critics like Prof. Shepard to have been written as a separate poem on Richard West, and later to have been joined to the poem so as to seem to form an integral part of it. It carries a strong personal note, and may have been written about Gray himself in anticipation of his death. D C Tovey is of the opinion that the Epitaph "is unquestionably the weakest part of the poem, and was, perhaps written about 1742, and inserted in the Elegy as an after thought." According to Oliver Elton the Epitaph "is usually felt to be a drop .... into his more factitious style."

The Epitaph may have been a separate poem or may have been inserted later into the body of the Elegy: but its importance cannot be doubted. According to Cleanth Brooks "the Epitaph is not to be judged in isolation. It is part of a context, and a very rich context. We have to read it in terms of the conditions of certain dramatic propriety which the context sets up." Discarding the view of Landor, which holds the Epitaph to be "a tin kettle tied to the tail of the poem", Frank H Ellis remarks that the Epitaph is actually the conclusion of a very tightly organised rhetorical structure. It supplies perspective and sympathy for the character whose life illustrates everything the poem has to say." So it may be said that the poem ends fittingly with the Epitaph which is not out of tune with the harmonious whole.

Critical Appreciation

The Elegy is one of the greatest and finest of Gray's poems and marks a stage in the development of his poetic genius. It reveals a growing democratic sentiment and romantic mood of the poet. Instead of confining himself to the saloons, coffee houses or the fashionable society of the town, Gray undertakes in this poem to deal with the life of the rustic people of the village, to present the 'short and simple annals of the poor'. Wit its lyricism, its treatment of nature, its melancholic mood and its emotional and imaginative vigour, the Elegy reveals a romantic spirit and marks a shift from the neoclassical poetry of the Augustan age, towards the Romantic poetry of the coming age. It is essentially transitional in character and ushers in the era of romanticism.

Universal Appeal: There is little originality or novelty of thought or sentiment expressed in the Elegy. It expresses the feeling for the common man, which everybody has. The poet's views about death as an inevitable fact of life, are quite common. The presentation of the contrast between the destiny of the rich and the poor, is based on conventional views. The thought about fame and obscurity, human ambition and pride are quite old too. The Elegy abounds in what Tennyson calls 'divine truisms that make us weep'. However, Gray has lent great force to these common thoughts and truisms through his unique expression that they have become universally appealing. The universal appeal of the poem is an important source of its greatness and popularity. The commonest man finds the Elegy echoing his own feelings and sentiments. The poem transcends the limits of time and place, and appeals to people everywhere and in all times.

Originality: Despite its treatment of common themes and sentiments, the poem is not totally devoid of originality. Dr. Johnson acknowledges the originality of the four stanzas beginning 'yet even these bones'. Gray's originality and individual talent may be seen in his condensed expression of great ideas in highly quotable phrases like " Full many a flower blush to die unseen" and "On some fond breast the parting soul relies". Herbert W Starr points out " probably no other poem of the same length has contributed so many famous phrases to our language." Gray's originality also lies in the fact that he raised the voice of democratic sympathy much before the French or the American revolution, aiming at the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity, had taken place. He may be said to have inspired the democratic sentiments of Wordsworth who, much later, wrote about poor rustics like Michael, the leech gatherer and the wagoner. Carl J Webber remarks "Thomas Gray is the pioneer literary spokesman for the ordinary man, the patron saint of the unknown soldier... . Gray's rude forefathers were also the forefathers of Wordsworth's Wagoner, Michael and Peterbell."

Gray's originality also lies in his treatment of the non fulfillment of the desires of common man and the non utilisation of his powers and talents because of lack of proper opportunities. The poem may be called an elegy on the premature death of the talents and energies of the poor. Another mark of Gray's originality is, that instead of addressing it to the rich, great or privileged men, he addresses this poem about common man to common men and seeks to elicit a sympathetic response for their common lot. The adoption of the elegiac quatrain in place of the conventional heroic couplet and the novel use of abstract personifications also reveal Gray's originality.

Humanity & Democratic Sentiments: The Elegy is remarkable for its humanity and its concern for the lot of common human beings on this earth. It may be put alongwith Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, which deals with the lot of man on this earth. Although it hints at the inevitability of the end of all human glory and the futility of power, wealth, ambition and pride, it is mainly concerned with the destiny of the common man and seems to lament the loss and waste of so much talent and energy of the poor because of lack of opportunity. A note of exultation may also be found in Gray's view that if poverty proved hinderance in the way of the advancement of the common rustic people, it also restrained them from doing evil and practising violence to gain material ends.

The democratic note may be found in the poem in the form of idea of equality and helplessness of both the rich and the poor before death. Death is a great leveller. If it deprives the poor of the opportunities ton rise, it also mercilessly snatches the power and the glory of the rich. Both alike await the inevitable hour of death and both feel helpless to do anything. The vanity of human wishes and aspirations has been nicely pointed out in the poem. The distinction between the lives of the rich and the poor is thus obliterated by death.

Melancholic Note: The Elegy is characterised by a melancholic note. The dominant mood of the poem is one of gloom and sadness. The shadow of death hovers throughout the poem and the regret over the frustration of human efforts and hopes is inherent in its tone. The opening scene of the poem is steeped in melancholy and the musings on human destiny in the later parts are also of melancholic nature. The description of the rustic poet also gives a gloomy picture of his life. Thus, the whole atmosphere and mood of the poem is tinged with melancholy. According to W V Moody and R M Lovett the Elegy "is the finest flower of that literature of melancholy Which Gray may be said to be haunted by a Hamlet like melancholy and sense of frustration. The thirty two stanzas of the poem embody almost all the emotions and reflections that a man commonly feels in the presence of death.

Personal & Autobiographical Element: Besides being an expression of general or universal feelings and sentiments, and dealing with the lot of the common man, the Elegy contains some autobiographical or personal elements. It deals with the life, destiny and anticipated death of the poet himself. He was, as Gray shows in the Elegy, a man of melalancholy and wayward disposition, who lived a secluded life 'far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.' He was, as he tells in the Epitaph, of humble birth and lived a life of obscurity and seclusion. In spite of his birth in a poor family, he had acquired much knowledge and learning but remained unknown of fame and fortune. He was sincere and had great gifts of mind and heart. Living a melancholic life, he faced much misery and had to shed tears frequently.

Unlike the neo classical poetry, the Elegy deals with the poet's personal feelings and reflects his own mood like romantic poetry. In the original draft of the poem, consisting of twenty two stanzas, quantity of personal references was less than what it is in the expanded version.

Moral Tone: The Elegy is didactic in nature and seeks to convey certain morals about human life. Gray exhorts the proud and ambitious people not to laugh at the simple life and obscure destiny of the poor. He tells them that they are much like the poor that they also have to die one day and leave all their glory, wealth and luxuries in this world. The poem lays emphasis on the transitoriness of all human glory and the emptiness of all boasts of power and wealth. It also points out the inevitability of death. Gray seems to impress upon us the idea that being poor is not altogether a matter of misfortune. The poor are fortunate in that they do not have to shut the gates of mercy on their fellow beings as the great men have to do.

Technical Beauties: The Elegy is remarkable for its simplicity of expression, and Gray says in it plainly what he has to say. There is nothing in the poem which can be called extraordinary but there is what I A Richards terms "that triumph of an exquisitely adjusted tone." The poet gives a perfect expression to his feelings and sentiments. Several critics tend to criticise the Elegy on account of its common places and truisms. These common places are good and have what Graham Hough believes to be 'their compulsive force'. In them, Gray has generalised his personal views and reflections. According to Hough "they are compelling because they are not only what they first appear, majestic statements about the common lot: they are also the solution of Gray's personal problem, and perhaps the only one possible in his day."

The Elegy possesses qualities like the stately measure of its verse, and the wonderful felicity and perfection of its style. It contains the neoclassical qualities like allusiveness, alliteration, personification and a dignified manner. The Elegy has not the delicate shadowiness of 'Ode to Evening' and its monumental style and weight of thinking seem beyond Collins. The verse of the Elegy is polished and musical and has a haunting quality.

The reflections on life and death make the Elegy a philosophical poem but it is also a sort of dramatic monologue in which the speaker has addressed imaginary readers or listeners. The poem is a formalised composition and has a rhetorical condensed expression. Historically speaking, the Elegy marks a shift from the neo classicism of the 18th century to the romanticism of the early 19th century. It foreshadows the romantic poetry of Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley and others.

Despite its melancholic tone and its harping on the transitoriness of human glory, it would be difficult to agree with Lyly Glazier's view about the Elegy that "the net effect of the whole poem is negative and fatalistic." We may find the positive effect of the poem in the fact that it does not glorify death. It lays emphasis on a desire for immortality signified by the desire to be remembered or to perpetuate human by memorials.

It presents a faithful account of the human condition on this earth, and if that condition turns out to be gloomy, Gray is not to be blamed for this. To him goes the credit for pointing out not only the obscurity of life of the poor, but also their good luck in having escaped, through death, the acts of cruelty and violence that they might have committed had they lived longer.

The Elegy is certainly a great poem. Its universal appeal, its humanity and its broader concern with the human condition are as much contributive to its greatness as its poetic merits. Different factors may be said responsible for its greatness. To conclude it may suffice to quote Douglas Bush who has nicely summed up its greatness, he remarks, "one obvious reason is power of style which makes almost every line an example of 'what oft was thought but never so well expressed.' Images, though generalised, can be nonetheless evocative. The antitheses are more than antitheses; they are a succession of dynamic and ironic contrast between ways and views of life. And all this inward force comes from a full sensibility working under precise control. In its combination of personal attachment and involvement, as well as in its generalise texture, the Elegy is in some sense an 18th century Lycidas."

ANDREW MARVELL'S TO HIS COY MISTRESS

The Poet: The son of a priest, Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) was born in the rectory of Winestead near Hull in Yorkshire, England. He grew as the only son of the family. The family moved to Hull where three and half years old Andrew was admitted to the Grammar School which had strong connections with Cambridge. At twelve he proceeded to Cambridge got a B A degree and when he was working for his M A his mother and father died one after another. Receiving the news he hurried back to Hull and never returned to Cambridge to complete his studies.

It is upon his poems that Marvell's literary reputation mainly rests. Yet very strangely, his poems were scarcely known to his contemporaries. Some of them were circulated in manuscripts form to friends, one among them was Milton. His poems were made available to the reading public in printed form some three years after his death. Marvell's poetical output was very meagre. He wrote some 40 poems in English and a few in Latin. For quite a long time his reputation as a poet was neglected but in the 20th century his fame soared to great heights. In 1912 Sir Herbert Grierson's famous edition of the poetry of Donne, followed, in 1921, by his anthology, Metaphysical Poetry: Donne to Butler, which placed Marvell squarely among the metaphysical poets. Marvell's modern fame received a great stimulus from T S Eliot's appreciative essay on him.

The Poem

Summary: In this poem the lover addresses his beloved who refuses to grant him sexual favours on account of her modesty and sense of honour. The lover says that her coyness and reluctance would have been justified if they had enough space and time at their disposal. If they had enough space at their disposal, she could have occupied herself by searching for rubies on the banks of the Ganges, while he would complaint about his unfulfilled love on the banks of the river Humber. If they had enough time at their disposal, he would have started loving her ten years before the great flood (mentioned in the Bible) while she could refuse to satisfy his desire till the Day of Judgement when the jews might agree to convert to Christianity. If they really had enough time, he would spend a hundred year in praising her eyes and gazing on her forehead; he would spend two hundred years in admiring each of her breasts; and he would spend thirty thousand years in praising the remaining parts of her body. She really deserves so much praise and adoration.

But all this is not possible, the lover goes on to say. Time is passing at a very fast pace, and eventually they have to face the 'deserts of vast eternity'. After some years, her beauty will no longer be found on this earth. She will lie in her marble tomb, and he would no longer be there to sing his love song. There, in the grave, worms will attack her long preserved virginity. All her sense of honour will then turn to dust and all his desire to make love to her will then turn to ashes. The grave is a fine and private place but nobody can enjoy the pleasure of love making there.

Therefore, it would be appropriate for both of them to enjoy the pleasures of love when there is still time, when her skin is still youthful and fresh and when her responsive soul is still burning with a desire for love making. They should, like amorous birds of prey, devour the pleasures of love, which now time still permits them to enjoy, rather than that they should suffer the pangs of unsatisfied love. They should roll all their strength and all their sweetness into one canon ball and shot it through the iron gates of life. If they cannot arrest the passage of time, they can at least quicken its pace.

Explanation:

Lines 1-20: Lady, if we had enough time and enough space at our disposal, I would not find fault with your coyness. In that case, we would sit down, and think which way to walk; and we would thus spend our long period of time which we would get to love each other. In that case you would be free to wander on the banks of the river Ganges in search of rubies while I would complain about my unfulfilled love on the banks of the river Humber. I would also, in that case, start loving you ten years before the great flood which is mentioned in the Bible, while you would be free to refuse to love me till the day the jews agree to be converted to Christianity. In that case, having endless time at our disposal, I would spend one hundred years to praise your eyes and to gaze on your forehead. I would then spend two hundred years to worship each of your breasts. But I would need thirty thousand years to praise the remaining parts of your body and the last stage would be devoted to a description of your heart. All this pomp and ceremony you deserve, lady, and I would not estimate your value at a lower rate.

Lines 21-32: But the trouble is that I always hear behind me the flying chariot of Time traveling at great speed to overtake us; and there before us lie the barren and endless stretches of Eternity. A time would come when your beauty would no longer be visible on this earth; nor would you, while lying in your marble tomb, hear the sound of my echoing love song. The worms will violate your long preserved virginity and your proud chastity will turn to dust, while all my sensual desire for you will change into ashes. The grave is a fine and private place, but it is not possible to make love to each other there.

Lines 33-46: Now is the time, therefore, for us to make love to each other when it is possible for us to do so, when the youthful complexion of your skin shines brightly like the dew-drops of the morning, and when your responsive soul burns through every pore of your body with the fire of passion. And now, like birds of prey overcome by their passion, we should rather utilise our time to satisfy our desires greedily han suffer slowly in the grip of time which will grind us slowly in its cruel jaws. Let us therefore collect all our strength and all out mutual attraction for each other and give then the shape of a cannon ball which is shot into a city with great speed. Let us use all our vigour and energy to enjoy the pleasure of sex, dis regarding all obstacles put in our way by life (or fate). In this way, even though we are not able to bring Time to a standstill, we shall be able to quicken its pace.

Critical Remarks:

The Carpe Diem Theme: To His Coy Mistress is probably the best known poem of Andrew Marvell. It is a love poem in which the speaker offers a strong plea to the beloved to soften towards him and to relax her rigid attitude of puritanical reluctance to grant him sexual favours. The lover builds up a really strong case and supports it with arguments which no sensible woman can reject. Thus the poem has a Carpe Diem theme. Carpe Diem is a Latin phrase meaning 'seize the opportunity'. The complete Latin sentence from which this phrase has been taken out is "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero" which means 'Enjoy the present day, trusting the least possible to the future."

The Syllogistic Construction: The poem is written in the form of what is known as syllogism. A syllogism means an argument developed in a strictly logical form leading to a definite conclusion. In a syllogism there are three stages which may be indicated by three words initiating each stage in the argument. These three words are: 'if' , 'but', 'therefore'. This poem is divisible into three clearly marked sections. The first section begins with an 'if': "Had we but world enough, and time." In this line the word 'had' is used in a conditional sense meaning 'if'. The second section begins with 'but' : "But at my back I always hear" (line 21). And the third section begins with 'therefore' : "Now, therefore, while the youthful hue" (line 33). Thus the poem begins with a conditional statement; the reasons are given to explain why that condition cannot be fulfilled, and finally a conclusion is drawn. The conclusion of the poem is that the lovers should lose no time in enjoying the pleasures of love. The conclusion justifies us in saying that the theme of the poem is that of Carpe Diem which means that one should enjoy the moment.

Imagery and Metaphysical Conceits: There are a number of concrete pictures in the poem and a whole series of metaphysical conceits. The very notion of the lover that, having enough space and time at their disposal, they would be able to wander as far apart as the Indian Ganges and the English Humber is fantastic. Then the lover's saying that he would love his mistress from a time ten years before the Flood and would spend hundreds and thousands of years in admiring and adoring various parts of her body constitutes another metaphysical conceit. The picture of Time's winged chariot hurrying near to overtake the lovers vividly brings before our mind the rapid passing of time. Here an abstract idea has been made concrete by means of a metaphor, and this is a realistic picture in contrast to the earlier metaphysical conciets though there is a conceit in the image of Time as having a winged chariot. The picture of the woman lying in her grave and the worms attacking her long preserved virginity and her honour turning to dust are conceits as the worms are regarded as being capable of seducing a woman, and a dead woman at that. We have conceits in the concluding stanza also, where the mistress' willing soul is depicted as giving out instant fires at every pore and the lovers are imagined as rolling their strength and their sweetness into one ball and tearing their pleasures with rough strife through the iron gate of life.

Wit and Irony: The witty manner in which the poet argues his case is noteworthy. Infact, the whole poem is characterised by metaphysical wit, and a streak of irony runs through it. The lover is mocking at his mistress' coyness. If the lovers had enough time, the beloved would be in a position to refuse till a long time. This remark is certainly witty and ironical. Then the lover speak of his 'vegetable love' growing vaster than empires. The manner in which the lover would have spent hundreds and thousands of years to admire her beauties is also described wittily. This is an example of witty hyperbole.

Concentration and Compression: The style of the poem is marked by compression and economy in the use of words. There is a concentration of meaning in the lines and the poet shows a remarkable skill in compressing his ideas in the fewest possible words. The idea of time passing rapidly has admirably been compressed in four lines and the idea of all the beauty and charm of the woman coming to nothing has also been stated in only a few words. Some of the lines have an epigrammatic quality:
"Thy beauty shall no more be found
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing horn"
"The grave's a fine and private place
But none I think do there embrace."




















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JOHN DONNE'S LOVER'S INFINITENESS

About the Poet: John Donne (1573-1631) was both a poet and a preacher. In his early youth he write secular poems which are witty, erudite, tender and cynical. They also reveal a profound insight into human nature. In his later years, he took to holy orders and became famous for his eloquent preaching. In his Divine Poems, he expresses his deep concern with theology. His poems are remarkable for their fusion of intellect and passion. He draws his images from his vast learning and his comparisons are ingenious and witty often drawn from philosophy, theology, geography, law, medicine etc. His poetry, popularly known as Metaphysical poetry, expresses a complex thought or emotion through images, known as metaphysical conceits, which at first seems far fetched and paradoxical. Donne's love poems were written before he was twenty five but they were published posthumously.

Metaphysical Poetry -- Some Characteristics

Even though Donne belongs to late 16th and early 17th Century, his love lyrics are unlike the Elizabethan love lyrics of Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney, which employed courtly form of address and expressed the values of courtly world. Donne employs a simple style and a colloquial diction and presents love in a context other than that of the court. Donne and his contemporaries -- Marvell, Crashaw, Vaughan and Herbert -- are known as metaphysical poets. The term 'metaphysical' in a general sense is applied to anything abstruse or abstract or philosophical, but when applied to the metaphysical school of poetry, it signifies in essence the employment of learning as the stuff of poetry.
Donne presses into the service of both his love poetry and religious poetry diverse experiences, thoughts and imagery from various fields such as law, alchemy, philosophy, astronomy etc. Hence, metaphysical imagery, unlike pastoral or mythical as in Milton or natural imagery of Shakespeare, is full of learned images, seemingly farfetched but apt.
Another feature of metaphysical poetry is its blending of passion and thought. There has always been the misconception that passion and reason are irreconcilable opposites. The Elizabethan passionate lyrics were expression of pure feelings. But you will notice that Donne's poetry is at once passionate and cerebral. The best definition of a metaphysical poet is that he thinks with his heart and feels with his mind. This unique blend of passion and thought accounts for the presence of wit, a characteristic feature of metaphysical poetry.
Thus metaphysical poetry is characterised by its intellectual content, passionate feeling, learned but startling conciets and it uses a direct form of address, spoken voice and a dramatic tone.

THE POEM

Introduction: Lover's Infiniteness is one of the well known poems of John Donne. Grierson comments that the title is a strange one, in fact it should be Love's Infiniteness. However, the title seems fit to the actual mood of the poem. The poet is capable of giving more and more love each day and the beloved must reciprocate. However, this would only be possible if the lover's were themselves infinite.

Summary: At the beginning the poet describes all that he has done to gain his lady's love. He says that he has done everything possible. He says that in spite of all his efforts if her love towards him still remains partial then he can never have it fully. This is because he has spent all his treasures of sighs, tears, oaths and letters with which he can win the lady. He says that it is possible that she might have once given him all her love but since then new love might have been created in her heart. Other men who had a great stock of tears, oaths and sighs might have out bidden him or might do so in future. If it is so, it is a cause of fresh anxiety for him. The poet asserts that the heart of the beloved was his and hence whatever grows there was his and this would be so in future also.

The poet further says that the condition mentioned above is, however, not correct. He declares that he is capable of giving more and more love each day. He declares that his lady love, too, ought to be able to give fresh rewards. Hence she cannot give her heart everyday. If she does so, it proves that she has never given her heart at all. This may seem paradoxical but the facts about love are always so. Even though the lover loses his heart yet his heart stays with him. The beloved saves her heart in losing it. He says that he will not change hearts, rather their two hearts will become one. The lovers will be infinite and they will ever be fresh.

Explanation, Stanza 1 (lines1-11): In the opening stanza Donne describes everything that he has done to win the love of his lady. He says that he has done all that was possible for him to win her heart. He has sighed, shed tears, taken oaths and written love letters. He has done all these actions to the maximum of his capacity. He calls these things treasures used to purchase the heart of the beloved. He says that he has used all his treasure and has nothing left. Therefore, he cannot do anything else. If, in spite of his best efforts, he has failed to win his lady's entire love, he can never buy it fully. He says that if his lady love has given him only her partial love and not entire love, he cannot have it all. If she has given her partial love to someone else, then he can never have her entire love.

Explanation, Stanza 11 (lines 12-22): Donne says that it is possible that his beloved may have given all her at that time. But, after that, other men, by their tears, sighs, oaths and letters might have created new love in her heart or might do so in future. They can do so because they have their entire stock of sighs, tears etc. The poet says that the newly created love is the cause of fresh anxiety for him because it was not there in the beginning. It was later produced in the heart of the lady love. He says that her heart was entirely his at the beginning. Using an image from agriculture he says that whatever grows there belongs to him and therefore he will have that. The poet uses an image from agriculture. He likens the heart to a ground. Once a person becomes an owner of a piece of land, he has all that grows in that land. In the same way the poet says that he will have all emotions of love that are produced in the heart of his beloved after once possessing her heart.

Explanation, Stanza 111 (lines 23-33): The poet says that he would not like to have the love of his beloved for that would stop further growth. He that has all cannot have any more. He says that his love grows to new heights everyday. He is capable of giving more and more love each day. As such, his lady love ought to be able to give him fresh rewards. He says to his beloved that she cannot give him her heart everyday and if she can do so that will mean she has in fact never given her heart to him. It is because if there is true love in her heart for him she must give rise to new love in her heart and therefore must always remain in possession of the heart. The paradoxical facts about love are that though we loose our heart in love yet the heart stays with us. In the case of true love, both the lovers must remain in possession of their hearts so that there may be new growth in the hearts. Thus true lovers save their hearts in losing them. The poet says that they will not change heart in love, rather they will join the two hearts into one.