GRAY'S PLACE IN LITERATURE Like Goldsmith, Gray belongs to the transitional period between the classical and the romantic schools of literature, as he combines in his work tendencies and characteristics of both schools. His literary activity shows three distinct phases, proclaiming him a seer of romanticism, though living in the age of classicism. In the first phase of Gray's literary activity, the influence of the classical leaders, Dryden and Pope, is very marked. The poems of 1742-"Ode on the Spring," "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” and “Hymn to Adversity ”. -are classical in form and in spirit. The regularity and monotony of the rhythm belong to the classical school. The moralizing, the abstract personifications, proclaim eighteenth-century models. The second phase is marked by the Elegy, in 1751. This poem is clearly transitional between the two schools of literature. The form is that of classicism, faultless and regular; but the spirit is the spirit of romanticism, simple and natural. The influence of Milton replaces in part the influence of Dryden and Pope. There are few personifications, and the diction is concrete in imagery. The democratic spirit of the romantic school is seen in the use of the names of Hampden, Milton, and Cromwell, instead of Greek and Latin heroes. "The Progress of Poetry" and "The Bard" also belong to this phase. Their romantic themes and evolution, the feeling, the imagination, and the freedom portrayed in them, did not appeal to the classical school, and these poems added little to Gray's fame during his lifetime. The third phase of his literary activity received its inspiration from the poet's growing interest in Norse mythology. He studied both the Icelandic language and the Welsh. The results of this interest and study were translations, -lyrics purely romantic in form and in spirit, —"The Fatal Sisters," "The Descent of Odin,” and “The Triumphs of Owen." As a scholar and an eighteenth-century writer, it was difficult for Gray to get away from the critical principles of an age of prose and classical standards; but as a man and a poetic genius, he broke loose from conventional rules. Love of nature, sympathy for the lowly, vivid imagination, and deep emotion are found in classical settings. Though broad in his intellectual interests, Gray wrote comparatively little. His place in literature is due not to great literary activity, but to purity and beauty of style and thought. Matthew Arnold says: "Gray holds his high rank as a poet not merely by the grace and beauty of passages in his poems; not merely by a diction generally pure in an age of impure diction; he holds it, above all, by the power and skill with which the evolution of his poems is conducted. . . . He is alone, or almost alone, in his age. Gray said himself that the style he aimed at was extreme conciseness of expression, yet pure, perspicuous, and musical. Compared not with the work of the great masters of the golden ages of poetry, but with the poetry of his own contemporaries, in general, Gray may be said to have reached in his style the excellence at which he aimed; while the evolution also of such a piece as his 'Progress of Poetry' must be accounted not less noble and sound in its style." TRIBUTES TO THE ELEGY "On the night of September 13, 1759, the night before the battle on the Plains of Abraham, Wolfe was descending the St. Lawrence with a part of his troops. Swiftly, but silently, did the boats fall down with the tide, unobserved by the enemy's sentinels at their post along the shore. Of the sol diers on board, how eagerly must every heart have throbbed at the coming conflict! How intently must every eye have contemplated the dark outline, as it lay pencilled upon the midnight sky, and as every moment it grew closer and clearer, of the hostile heights! Not a word was spoken not a sound heard beyond the rippling of the stream. Wolfe alone - thus tradition has told us — repeated in a low tone to the other officers in his boat those beautiful stanzas with which a country churchyard inspired the muse of Gray. One noble line, 'The paths of glory lead but to the grave,' must have seemed at such a moment fraught with mournful meaning. At the close of the recitation, Wolfe added, 'Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec."" LORD MAHON, in History of England. 'The Elegy is perhaps the most widely known poem in our language. The reason of this extensive popularity is perhaps to be sought in the fact that it expresses in an exquisite manner feelings and thoughts that are universal. It deals. with them in no lofty, philosophical manner, but in a simple, unpretentious way, always with the truest and broadest humanity. The poet's thoughts turn to the poor; he forgets the fine tombs inside the church, and thinks only of the 'mouldering heaps' in the churchyard. Hence the problem that especially suggests itself is the potential greatness, when they lived, of the rude forefathers' that now lie at his feet. He does not, and cannot, solve it, though he finds considerations to mitigate the sadness it must inspire; but he expresses it in all its awfulness in the most effective language and with the deepest feeling; and his expression of it has become a living part of all languages." — HALES, in his edition of the Elegy. "The Elegy has exercised an influence on all the poetry of Europe from Denmark to Italy, from France to Russia. With the exception of certain works of Byron and Shakspere, no English poem has been so widely admired and imitated abroad." EDMUND GOSSE, in Life of Gray. BIBLIOGRAPHY The first edition of Gray's works was edited by his friend and executor, the Rev. W. Mason, in 1775. The edition includes memoirs of Gray's life and of his contemporaries. All subsequent editions have been based on Mason's edition. Of the recent editions, the best is The Works of Thomas Gray, edited by Edmund Gosse, London, 1884. In four volumes. I. BIOGRAPHY CARRUTHERS, ROBERT. Life of Gray. Best brief life. GOSSE, EDMUND. Life of Gray. English Men of Letters Series. 1882. Interesting account of the man and his work. GARNETT and GOSSE. An Illustrated History of English Literature. 1903. Gray, Vol. III., pp. 285–296. A short sketch of Gray's life; beautifully illustrated. HOWITT, WILLIAM. Homes and Haunts of the British Poets. 1857. Gray, pp. 186-194. Best account of Gray's connection with Stoke-Pogis. II. CRITICISM ARNOLD, MATTHEW. Essays in Criticism. Second Series. Gray, pp. 69-99. 1888. Scholarly and accurate estimate of Gray's place in litera- DOBSON, AUSTIN. Eighteenth Century Vignettes. 1889. Life of Gray. A harsh and partisan criticism of Gray's romantic tendencies. |
