Thomas Gray (стр. 2 из 4)
2.The Works of Thomas Gray
Poetical Works
An Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1747)
An Elegy wrote in a Country Churchyard (1751)
In Greek, Latin, German, Italian, and French - Google BooksDesigns by Mr. Bentley: for six poems by Mr. T. Gray (1753)
Ode on the SpringOde on the Death of a Favourite CatOde on a Distant Prospect of Eton CollegeA Long StoryHymn to AdversityElegy written in a Country Church-yardOdes (1757)
The Progress of Poesy. A Pindaric OdeThe Bard. A Pindaric Ode.Poems by Mr. Gray (1768)
Ode on the SpringOde on the Death of a Favourite CatOde on a Distant Prospect of Eton CollegeHymn to AdversityThe Progress of PoesyThe BardThe Fatal Sisters: An OdeThe Descent of Odin: An Ode The Triumphs of Owen: A FragmentElegy written in a Country Church-yardOde performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge, July 1, 1769
The Candidate (1774?)
The Poems of Mr. Gray. To which are prefixed
memoirs of his life and writings by W. Mason, ed. (1775)
The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray; with a Memoir by J. Mitford, ed. (1854)
The Works of Thomas Gray In Prose and Verse 4 vols., by Edmund Gosse, ed. (1884)
Prose Works
PhaedoOn the Philosophy of Lord BolingbrokeOn Norman ArchitectureObservations on English MetreThe Measures of VerseObservations on the Pseudo-RhythmusSome Observations on the Use of RhymeAdditional Observations and Conjectures on RhymeSome Remarks on the Poems of John LydgateSamuel DanielLetters
Letters in Mason's The Poems of Mr. Gray by W. Mason (1827)
The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and the Rev. Norton Nicholls - by John Mitford (1843)
The Correspondence of Thomas Gray and William Mason - by John Mitford (1853)
3. “Elegy written in a Churchyard”
......."Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is—as the title indicates—an elegy. Such a poem centers on the death of a person or persons and is, therefore, somber in tone. An elegy is lyrical rather than narrative—that is, its primary purpose is to express feelings and insights about its subject rather than to tell a story. Typically, an elegy expresses feelings of loss and sorrow while also praising the deceased and commenting on the meaning of the deceased's time on earth. Gray's poem reflects on the lives of humble and unheralded people buried in the cemetery of a church.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=thecompleteshake&creative=374725&camp=211173&link_code=ur1&path=subst/home/home.html.......The time is the mid 1700s, about a decade before the Industrial Revolution began in England. The place is the cemetery of a church. Evidence indicates that the church is St. Giles, in the small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in southern England. Gray himself is buried in that cemetery. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor house at Stoge Poges.
.......Gray began writing the elegy in 1742, put it aside for a while, and finished it in 1750. Robert Dodsley published the poem in London in 1751. Revised or altered versions of the poem appeared in 1753, 1758, 1768, and 1775. Copies of the various versions are on file in the Thomas Gray Archive at Oxford University.
.......Gray wrote the poem in four-line stanzas (quatrains). Each line is in iambic pentameter, meaning the following:
1..Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of ten syllables.
2..In each pair, the first syllable is unstressed (or unaccented), and the second is stressed (or accented), as in the two lines that open the poem:
.......The CUR few TOLLS the KNELL of PART ing DAY
.......The LOW ing HERD wind SLOW ly O'ER the LEA
.......In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second line rhymes with the fourth (abab), as follows:
a.....The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
b.....The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
a.....The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
b.....And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
.......A stanza with the above-mentioned characteristics—four lines, iambic pentameter, and an abab rhyme scheme—is often referred to as a heroic quatrain. (Quatrain is derived from the Latin word quattuor, meaning four.) William Shakespeare and John Dryden had earlier used this stanza form. After Gray's poem became famous, writers and critics also began referring to the heroic quatrain as an elegiac stanza.
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Compiled by Michael J. Cummings © 2003, 2009, 2010
Stanza 1
1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
2. The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
3. The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
4. And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Notes
(1) Curfew: ringing bell in the evening that reminded people in English towns of Gray’s time to put out fires and go to bed. (2) Knell: mournful sound. (3) Parting day: day's end; dying day; twilight; dusk. (4) Lowing: mooing. (5) O'er: contraction for over. (6) Lea: meadow.
Stanza 2
5. Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,
6. And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
7. Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
8. And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.
Notes
(1) Line 5: The landscape becomes less and less visible. (2) Sight . . . solemn stillness . . . save: alliteration. (3) Save: except. (4) Beetle: winged insect that occurs in more than 350,000 varieties. One type is the firefly, or lightning bug. (5) Wheels: verb meaning flies in circles. (6) Droning: humming; buzzing; monotonous sound. (7) Drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: This clause apparently refers to the gentle sounds made by a bell around the neck of a castrated male sheep that leads other sheep. A castrated male sheep is called a wether. Such a sheep with a bell around its neck is called a bellwether. Folds is a noun referring to flocks of sheep. (8) Tinklings: onomatopoeia.
Stanza 3
9. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
10. The moping owl does to the moon complain
11. Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
12. Molest her ancient solitary reign.
Notes
(1) Save: except. (2) Yonder: distant; remote. (3) Ivy-mantled: cloaked, dressed, or adorned with ivy. (4) Moping: gloomy; grumbling. (5) Of such: of anything or anybody. (6) Bow'r: bower, an enclosure surrounded by plant growth—in this case, ivy. (7) Molest her ancient solitary reign: bother the owl while it keeps watch over the churchyard and countryside. (8) Her ancient solitary rein: metaphor comparing the owl to a queen.
Stanza 4
13. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
14. Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
15. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
16. The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
Notes
(1) Where heaves the turf: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (the turf heaves). (2) Mould'ring: mouldering (British), moldering (American), an adjective meaning decaying, crumbling. (3) Cell: metaphor comparing a grave to a prison cell. (4) Rude: robust; sturdy; hearty; stalwart. (4) Hamlet: village.
Stanza 5
17. The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,
18. The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,
19. The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
20. No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
Notes
(1) Breezy call of incense-breathing Morn: wind carrying the pleasant smells of morning, including dewy grass and flowers. Notice that Morn is a metaphor comparing it to a living creature. (It calls and breathes.) (2) Swallow: Insect-eating songbird that likes to perch. (3) Clarion: cock-a-doodle-doo. (4) Echoing horn: The words may refer to the sound made by a fox huntsman who blows a copper horn to which pack hounds respond.
Stanza 6
21. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
22. Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
23. No children run to lisp their sire's return,
24. Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.
Notes
(1) hearth . . . housewife . . . her: alliteration. (2) Climb his knees the envied kiss to share: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (to share the envied kiss).
Stanza 7
25. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
26. Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
27. How jocund did they drive their team afield!
28. How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
Notes
(1) Sickle: Harvesting tool with a handle and a crescent-shaped blade. Field hands swing it from right to left to cut down plant growth. (2) Furrow: channel or groove made by a plow for planting seeds. (3) Glebe: earth. (4) Jocund: To maintain the meter, Gray uses an adjective when the syntax call for an adverb, jocundly. Jocund (pronounced JAHK und) means cheerful.
Stanza 8
29. Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
30. Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
31. Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
32. The short and simple annals of the poor.