Lecture Nine Thomas Gray Teacher: Wang Xingwei The Pre-Romanticism Thomas Gray (1716-1771) Life Unhappy childhood Left Cambridge without a degree The friendship with Horace Walpole Professor of History and Modern Language at Cambridge Life lived at the time when Enlightenment Movement was coming to its end the sentimental literature was flourishing The Sentimental Literature Samuel Richardson: Pamela Laurence Sterne: A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy Gray: “Elegy” Thomas Young: “The Night” Cowper: “The Task: Gray as a leader of the Sentimental literature his life experience happened to make him the forerunner of this new literary trend his masterpiece “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” once and for all established his fame as the leader the sentimental poetry started a new school in poetry called “ the Graveyard School”. Other works of Gray An illustration to Grays poem Ode on the Spring “Ode on the Spring” (1742) “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1747) “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat” (1748) the Graveyard School poetry “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” A result of eight years careful composition and polishing The reflection on death, the sorrows of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholy He reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown but mocks the great ones who despise the poor