ROMANTIC

PERIOD
Here starts
the lesson!
Table of
Contents!
INTRODUCTIO
N EXAMPLES
The Elegy Written in a Metrical Tales &
Country Churchyard Metrical Romance
by Thomas Gray
 01
INTRODUCTI
ONGRAY
THOMAS
 THOMAS GRAY
Born: December 26, 1716, London, England
•Died: July 30, 1771 (aged 54), Cambridge,
England
•Notable Works: Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard published in 1751
•was an English poet, classical scholar and
professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, best
known for his poem.
WORKS
• Ode on the Spring (written in 1742)
• On the Death of Richard West
(written in 1742)
• Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat,
Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes
(written in 1747)
• Ode to a Distant Prospect of Eton
College (written in 1747 and
published anonymously)
• Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard (written between 1745
and 1750)
• The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric
Ode (written between 1751 and
1754)
• The Bard: A Pindaric Ode (written
between 1755 and 1757)
• The Fatal Sisters: An Ode (written in
1761)
 ELEGY
WRITTEN IN
A COUNTRY
CHURCHYAR
D
 Save that from yonder ivy-mantled
The curfew tolls the knell of parting tow’r The moping owl does to the
day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er moon complain Of such, as wand’ring
the lea, The plowman homeward near her secret bow’r, Molest her
plods his weary way, And leaves the ancient solitary reign.
world to darkness and to me.

Beneath those rugged elms, that

Now fades the glimm’ring landscape yew-tree’s shade, Where heaves the
on the sight, And all the air a solemn turf in many a mould’ring heap, Each
stillness holds, Save where the beetle in his narrow cell for ever laid, The
wheels his droning flight, And drowsy rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
tinklings lull the distant folds;
The breezy call of incense-breathing Oft did the harvest to their sickle
Morn, yield,
The swallow twitt’ring from the straw- Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe
built shed, has broke;
The cock’s shrill clarion, or the How jocund did they drive their team
echoing horn, afield!
No more shall rouse them from their How bow’d the woods beneath their
lowly bed. sturdy stroke!

For them no more the blazing hearth Let not Ambition mock their useful
shall burn, toil,
Or busy housewife ply her evening Their homely joys, and destiny
care: obscure;
No children run to lisp their sire’s Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful
return, smile
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to The short and simple annals of the
share. poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of Can storied urn or animated bust
pow’r, Back to its mansion call the fleeting
And all that beauty, all that wealth breath?
e’er gave, Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent
Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour. dust,
The paths of glory lead but to the Or Flatt’ry soothe the dull cold ear of
grave. Death?

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
the fault, Some heart once pregnant with
If Mem’ry o’er their tomb no trophies celestial fire;
raise, Hands, that the rod of empire might
Where thro’ the long-drawn aisle and have sway’d,
fretted vault Or wak’d to ecstasy the living lyre.
The pealing anthem swells the note
of praise.
But Knowledge to their eyes her Some village-Hampden, that with
ample page dauntless breast
Rich with the spoils of time did ne’er The little tyrant of his fields
unroll; withstood;
Chill Penury repress’d their noble Some mute inglorious Milton here
rage, may rest,
And froze the genial current of the Some Cromwell guiltless of his
soul. country’s blood.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene, Th’ applause of list’ning senates to
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean command,
bear: The threats of pain and ruin to
Full many a flow’r is born to blush despise,
unseen, To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land,
And waste its sweetness on the And read their hist’ry in a nation’s
desert air. eyes,
Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib’d Far from the madding crowd's ignoble
alone strife,
Their growing virtues, but their Their sober wishes never learn'd to
crimes confin’d; stray;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
a throne, They kept the noiseless tenor of their
And shut the gates of mercy on way.
mankind,
Yet ev'n these bones from insult to
The struggling pangs of conscious protect,
truth to hide, Some frail memorial still erected
To quench the blushes of ingenuous nigh,
shame, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless
Or heap the shrine of Luxury and sculpture deck'd,
Pride Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
With incense kindled at the Muse’s
flame.
Their name, their years, spelt by th’ On some fond breast the parting soul
unletter’d muse, relies,
The place of fame and elegy supply:
And many a holy text around she Some pious drops the closing eye
strews, requires;
That teach the rustic moralist to die. Ev’n from the tomb the voice of
Nature cries,
For who to dumb Forgetfulness a Ev’n in our ashes live their wonted
prey, fires.
This pleasing anxious being e’er
resign’d, For thee, who mindful of th’
Left the warm precincts of the unhonour’d Dead
cheerful day, Dost in these lines their artless tale
Nor cast one longing, ling’ring look relate;
behind? If chance, by lonely contemplation
led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy
fate,
Haply some hoary-headed swain may “Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in
say, scorn,
“Oft have we seen him at the peep of Mutt’ring his wayward fancies he
dawn would rove,
Brushing with hasty steps the dews Now drooping, woeful wan, like one
away forlorn,
To meet the sun upon the upland Or craz’d with care, or cross’d in
lawn. hopeless love.

“There at the foot of yonder nodding “One morn I miss’d him on the
beech custom’d hill,
That wreathes its old fantastic roots Along the heath and near his fav’rite
so high, tree;
His listless length at noontide would Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
he stretch, Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was
And pore upon the brook that babbles he;
by.
The next with dirges due in sad array Large was his bounty, and his soul
Slow thro’ the church-way path we sincere,
saw him borne. Heav'n did a recompense as largely
Approach and read (for thou canst send:
read) the lay, He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
Grav’d on the stone beneath yon He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he
aged thorn.” wish'd) a friend.

THE EPITAPH No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Here rests his head upon the lap of Or draw his frailties from their dread
Earth abode,
A youth to Fortune and to Fame (There they alike in trembling hope
unknown. repose)
Fair Science frown’d not on his The bosom of his Father and his God.
humble birth,
And Melancholy mark’d him for her
own.
 XL

02
EXAMPLES
METRICAL TALES and
METRICAL ROMANCE
ROMANTIC
PERIOD ● The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner by
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.
● Christabel by
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge.
● Tam o’ Shanter by
Robert Burns.
EXAMPLES OF
METRICAL
TALES
ROMANTIC
PERIOD ● Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
● Frankenstein by Mary
Shelley
● Wuthering Heights by
Emily Brontë
● The Scarlet Letter by
Nathaniel Hawthorne
EXAMPLES OF
METRICAL
ROMANCE