splendor of which poetical style seems capable. If Virgil and his scholar Racine may be allowed to have united somewhat more ease with their elegance, no other poet approaches Gray in this kind of excellence. The degree of poetical invention diffused over such a style, the balance of taste and of fancy necessary to produce it, and the art with which the offensive boldness of imagery is polished away are not, indeed, always perceptible to the common reader, nor do they convey to any mind the same species of gratification which is felt from the perusal of those poems which seem to be the unpremeditated effusions of enthusiasm. But to the eye of the critic, and more especially to the artist, they afford a new kind of pleasure, not incompatible with a distinct perception of the art employed, and somewhat similar to the grand emotions excited by the reflection on the skill and toil exerted in the construction of a magnificent palace. They can only be classed among the secondary pleasures of po etry, but they never can exist without a great degree of its high er excellencies. toly 2. Almost all Gray's poetry was lyrical-that species which, issuing from the mind in the highest state of excitement, requires an intensity of feeling which, for a long composition, the genius of no poet could support. Those who complained of its brevity and rapidity, only confessed their own inability to follow the movements of poetical inspiration.* Of the two grand attributes of the ode, Dryden had displayed the enthusiasm, Gray exhibited the magnificence. He is also the only modern English writer whose Latin verses deserve general notice, but we must lament that such difficult trifles had diverted his genius from its natural objects. In his Letters he has shown the descriptive powers of a poet, and in new combinations of generally familiar words, which he seems to have caught from Madame de Sévigné (though it must be said he was somewhat quaint), he was eminently happy. It may be added that he deserves the comparatively trifling praise of having been the most learned poet since Milton. 1.-ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH-YARD. [INTRODUCTION.—This famous poem was begun by Gray in 1742, finished in 1750, and first printed in 1751. It has been pronounced "the most widely known poem in our language "'—a popularity to be sought in the fact that "it expresses in an exquisite manner feelings and thoughts that are universal," and are therefore intelligible to all. Though not wholly free from faults, the Elegy is, on the whole, to use Gray's felicitous phrase, "a gem of purest ray serene."] 1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. * 2. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, NOTES.-Line I. curfew. See note on of this book. - parting, departing. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-Define Elegy. (See Def. 10.)- How many lines does each stanza contain?—What of the prosody of the poem? Ans. Each quatrain consists of four lines of iambic pentameter, rhyming alternately. Define iambic pentameter. (See Swinton's New School Composition, page 90, III. and note.) 1-4. The curfew... me. What kind of sentence grammatically? - This stanza contains only two words not of Anglo-Saxon origin: which are these words? What word in this stanza belongs to the diction of poetry?-State the derivation of "curfew."-Which line in this stanza contains two examples of alliteration? 1. Tolls the knell. What figure of speech is this? (See Def. 20.)-Change into a simile. (See Def. 20, il.) 3. The ploughman... way. A critic points out that this line is quite peculiar in its possible transformations, and adds that he has made "twenty different versions preserving the rhythm, the general sentiment, and the rhyming word." Let pupils try how many of these variations they can make. 5-8. Now... folds. In this stanza what epithets are applied to "landscape?' "stillness?" " flight?" "tinkling?" "fold?" Rewrite this stanza, omitting the epithets designated.-Are meaning and metre still preserved?-What is lacking?-Gray has been accused of going to excess in the use of epithets. 6. air. Is this word subject or object?-Transpose into the prose order. 3. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower The moping owl does to the moon complain 4. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, The rude forefathers of the hamlet* sleep. 5. The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 12. reign. The word is here used in | 20. their lowly bed, not the grave, as the sense not of rule, but of realm. 16. rude, rustic, unpolished. many have supposed, but the bed on which, during their life, they were wont to lie. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-9-12. Save... reign. Is this stanza a principal or a subordinate proposition?-Save. What part of speech here? What originally? (See Glossary.) 13-16. Beneath... sleep. What kind of sentence rhetorically? - Change into the direct order. 15, 16. Each... sleep. With what noun is "each" in apposition?-What adjective phrase modifies "each?"-What is the figure of speech in this passage? (See Def. 20.)-Express the thought in prose diction. 19. clarion. Literal or metaphorical? 20. No more shall rouse, etc. What noun forms the compound grammatical subject of "shall rouse ?"-What thought in the previous stanza does this sentence carry out? 22. ply her evening care. What is the figure here? (See Def. 20.) Change into a plain expression.1 23. ran to lisp. Compare with a passage in Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night, page 277, lines 21, 22 of this volume. 23, 24. No children... share. In these lines point out two infinitives (of purpose) that are used adverbially. What does each modify?- In the word 'children," how is the plural formed? (See Glossary.) 1 Hales remarks that "this is probably the kind of phrase that caused 10 15 20 7. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 25 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe* has broke; How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! 8. Let not Ambition* mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; 9. The boast of heraldry,* the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 26. furrow, used metaphorically for plough.-glebe, ground. LITERARY ANALYSIS.-25-28. Oft... stroke. Change this stanza into equiv alent sentences, using your own words. 26. broke. State the correct prose form, and account for Gray's using "broke." 29, 31. Ambition ... Grandeur. “Ambition” is equivalent to the ambitious (figure synecdoche). To what, in like manner, is “Grandeur ” equivalent ? With what word is "smile" made to rhyme? Is it a perfect 31. smile. rhyme ? 33-36. The boast of heraldry... to the grave. This solemnly impressive stanza is associated with a striking event in American history. On the night before the attack on Quebec, as the boats were silently descending the St. Lawrence, the gallant General Wolf "repeated in a low tone to the other officers in his boat those beautiful stanzas with which a country church-yard inspired the muse of Gray, and at the close of the recitation, 'Now, gentlemen, I would rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec.'"' For himself, he was within a few hours to find fulfilment of that noble line"The paths of glory lead but to the grave." Wordsworth to pronounce the language of the Elegy unintelligible "—a judg. ment assuredly too censorious. Wordsworth, in the following direct manner conveys the thought which Gray thus veils : "And she I cherished turned her wheel Lord Mahon's History of England. 39 35 10. Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 11. Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? 12. Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid. Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; 13. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page, And froze the genial current of the soul. 14. Full many a gem of purest ray serene * The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear; 39. fretted, ornamented with fretwork, 43. provoke, to call forth, to rouse to or bands intersecting at right 41. storied. See Il Penseroso, page 63, line 150, note. activity the etymological meaning of the word. (See Glossary.) 51. rage, inspiration, enthusiasm. LITERARY ANALYSIS. 38. Memory ... no trophies raise. What combination of figures of speech here? (See Defs. 22, 29.) Express this in plain language. 39, 40. Where, through... note of praise. 41-44. Can storied... death? Analyze this stanza. What is the rhetorical effect gained here by the use of the interrogative form? 46-48. By what circumlocutions does Gray express some saint? Some mighty ruler? Some great poet? 47. Hands. Supply the ellipsis. 49, 50. her ample page. . . unroll. original meaning of the word volume? 52. froze, etc. What is the figure? 53. many a... purest ray serene. How is this thought connected with the What is the position of the adjectives with reference to the noun ?-Of whose word-order is this an imitation? (See L'Allegro, page 51, line 32, note.) 40 45 50 55 |