Comments & Themes

Topics for Discussion

—Thomas Gray has conventionally been considered Pre-Romantic. Identify aspects of his poems that can be said to prefigure the Romantic movement.

—Discuss the imagery of birds and trees in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”. In what ways do the main images cohere? Are any of them traditional or symbolic?

—Can the lyrical speaker of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” be identified with the poet himself?

—Why do you think was Gray’s purpose in mentioning John Hampden, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?

—Discuss the notions of the pastoral, the sublime and the picturesque in relation to Gray’s poems.

—Discuss the originality of the Epitaph in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”.

—In what ways does the opening citation by Menander in “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” relate to the poem’s content?

---What role do memories play in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”?

— Discuss the use of the traditional images of spring and paradise in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.

— Discuss how suffering and evil are objectified or dramatised in the poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.

— “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” has unanimously been considered Gray’s best poem. What, in your opinion, makes it better than “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”?