Thomas Gray (Gray Thomas)

Thomas Gray - one of the earliest forerunners of romanticism in English poetry. He was educated at Eton College and Cambridge University. He traveled to France and Italy. Upon his return to England, passed the examination for a degree in legal sciences, and remained at the university, which in 1768 became a professor of modern history. The poetic work of Mr.. began in 1747, the publication of "Ode, written in the form of Eton College", followed by "Pindaric" (1750 - 1757), distinguished from the latter ode "Progress poetry" and "Bard". In 1751 was published "Ellegiya, written in a rural cemetery, the most significant lyrical composition G., initiating the" graveyard poetry. Then G. turned to the study of ancient Icelandic and Irish poetry.

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Predromantizm previously only expresses itself precisely in English Literature 18. Here in the country, . already experienced in 18 of the Industrial Revolution and in the second half of the 18 entered a new phase of social break -, . related to the agrarian and industrial upheaval, . earlier than in other European countries, . revealed contradictions of bourgeois society, . postavivishie questioned the position of the Enlightenment,
. The foundations and educational optimism examined life. The feeling of uncertainty and confusion before the underlying, was not yet known forces of nature undermined the credibility of the universal mind of the Enlightenment and made the turn to the past to compare with this. English Literature predromanticheskaya 60 - 90 xx 18 years in uniform in their social and ideological premises. Diverse flows at this time and the revision of aesthetic education. Revived interest in long-forgotten and Chosseru Spencer, Shakespeare and Milton stand out as the most significant of the fantastic, grandiose and melancholy images. Burke stands in contrast to the educational triad of Truth, Goodness and Beauty of the aesthetic value of Exalted: the terrible, mysterious, repulsive pictures may appall voobrzhenie, even if they are not Truth, Goodness and Beauty. If Sheftseberi concept of "chivalry" and "medieval" sound like synonyms of barbarism and folly, the Herd announcing chivalrous medieval precious source of inspiration for poets. Increased interest in folk art. This provided an occasion for imitations, forgeries and hoaxes such as "Songs of Ossian" Macpherson. Instead of ancient mythology, orderly and harmonized classicists, M. introduced readers to the misty and mysterious world of the heroic legends of the North. The mystery, vagueness of outline, melancholy resignation that constitute the underlying sentiment of these poems, alike in their part of setimentalnoy poetry Young, Gray, etc.

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. In "Ellegii written in the village cemetery, where Gray owes his European-wide fame, there is no place confused desperation and grief, which give color tragic example of Young's poem" Night Thoughts
. Otherwise, set by the author himself, or else appear to him and the world. Ellegiya not covered ominous darkness of the night, and the last reflections of the sunset, to be replaced by unnoticed come quiet twilight.

. Ellegiya begins with a description down to earth night twilight.

. In the misty twilight of a neighborhood disappears:
. Everywhere silence, everywhere dead sleep;

. Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,
. And all the air a solemn stillness holds:

. The poet wanders through the cemetery the night, peering at the inscriptions on the graves.

. Here, the forefathers of the village in the coffins of solitary
. Forever closures sleep wakeless sleep:

. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
. The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep:

. Peaceful and quiet reflection poet
. Among the graves of the poet hears the sounds, reminiscent of life: steps weary plowman, the lowing of cows returning from pasture, and the tinkling of their bells. Death is presented as a natural conclusion to life, not torn apart the bonds of love and friendship (the dead still live in the memory of the villagers).
. The poet thinks about the fate of those who find eternal rest on this
. deserted village churchyard.

. Perhaps the dust still covered Hampden arrogant,
. Defender citizens, daring the enemy of tyranny;
. Or blood of Cromwell neobagrenny,
. Or Milton dumb, without glory hidden in the dust.

. Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
. The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
. Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
. Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

. A note of conciliation, sounding here, very typical of Gray
. He
complains about the injustice of society, in which extinguished the ability of people called, perhaps, to do great things. If they could not express themselves in goodness, at least they escaped and evil, fate led them through the life of a quiet path, away from the crowds. "

. In Ellegii written in the village cemetery trends cemetery lyrics, meditations on the impermanence of all earthly things combined with a glorification of peasant labor and the patriarchal and idyllic peasant life
. Speaking of the dead villagers, D. praises in glowing and pathetic notes of a modest, inconspicuous work, fully understanding its meaning.

. As part of their gold sickle cornfield pinch,
. And they won persistent plow the fields!
. As part of their ax oaks trembled
. And then their faces sprinkled the earth!

. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield;
. Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
. How jocund did they drive their teams afield!
. How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

. However ellegiya further loses its democratic sense, becoming a glorification of the peasant patriarchal oppression and stupidity
. Bleak life flowing in want, ignorance and deprivation, declared Mr.. ideal of human existence. He speaks of villagers

. Hiding from the mundane who deal corruptly confusion
. Without fear and hope, in the valley of this life,
. Not knowing the pain, not knowing pleasure,
. They casually walked his path.

. Far from he madding crow'd ignoble strife,
. Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
. Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
. They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

. The overall atmosphere ellegii remain melancholic discourse about death, equally inevitable for beggars and kings
. It is from this point of view of the poor preferential poet. This life is so unattractive that no matter the time of death of regret.

G. prefers a peaceful life in rural seclusion empty, though the brilliant light of life. He selects a rural idyll, which allows you to go way of life without worries and anxieties, in the quiet joys of unity with nature.

. And here quietly sleeping under the shadow of the grave --
. And modest memorial in the shelter of thick pines,
. With nepyshnoy inscription and carving downtime
. Passer calls breathe dust over them.

. Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect,
. Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
. With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
. Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.

. One picture of nature is replaced by another
. They all have different perceived hero. And each leaves his mark. The beauty of nature projected on his feelings, causing sympathy for people, great thoughts of the grandeur of our surroundings, the desire to merge with nature. So in ellegii create harmony between man and the universe. It arises as a result of his refusal to hang up the pursuit of elusive happiness and attractive mirage
. Dimensional over rhymed verse, which is written Ellegiya, smooth transitions from one description to another, the abundance of typically Sentimental comparisons create a calm tone, suggestive thoughts about yourself and your time.

. In Ellegii created a lyrical image of the poet; G
. imprinted in it peculiar sentimentalists ideas about poetical nature. The poet is portrayed as a man, 'a sensitive soul and gentle heart,' who loves solitude in the bosom of nature.

. Unfortunate, gloomy, with the head tilted,
. He often went into the grove tears shed,
. As a wanderer, home, friends, all lacking,
. Whom does the soul does not delight.

. Him have we seen the greenwood side along,
. While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done,
. Now drooping, woeful-wan, like one forlorn,
. Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love

. "Ellegiya" - one of the monuments of classical English poetry
. sentimentalism - survived the time
. By the time it is not accessed
Romantic poets.

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Sentimentalism as a trend emerged in England in the 50 - 60E he was 18 and
then spread to France. He got the name from the word sentiment - "feeling", a name that has been established at the time of the release of "Sentimental Journey" Stern (1768) and designated the first of the cult of feeling, which is characteristic for sentimentalists. Sotsilanye background and the very nature of sentimenalizma a very complex. On the one hand the deepening of social contradicts in England aroused sentimentalists exacerbation of social criticism, not only at the nobility, but also at the bourgeoisie. Representatives intellegentsii bitterly noticing pauperizaiyu peasantry, the replacement of some ways to use other.
However, this criticism of bourgeois relations is a sentimentalitov controversial. Writers - sentimentalist 18-19 centuries refuse to understand that capitalism is an inevitable historical
stage. They wrote in the era of the industrial revolution, which falls in
mainly in the 60-90 years 18. The invention and introduction of machinery, the growth of factories and
. cities, the rapid transformation of Britain from a country with small towns and large agricultural population in the industrialized capitalist countries - all this "industrial revolution" led sentimentalists in horror
. They did not understand its inevitability, . not want to see her progressive parties, . and, . rightly criticizing the brutality of bourgeois relations, . sighed the "Eden patriarchal stupidity." Contradictory outlook sentimentalists affected and in their relation to the human mind and its capabilities,
. Bourgeois society is perceived as a society based on principles of reason. However, it was at the mercy of glaring contradictions: the human race once again doomed to untold suffering. All these observations have led many writers in the 18 to disappointment in the possibilities of reason in the future of mankind. Pessimism, the desire to continue to oppose the cult of reason cult feelings, searching for some kind of irrational way are typical of English writers sentimentalists. Philosophical basis of sentimentalism is the subjective idealism
Berkeley and Young. Berkeley in his "Treatise on the principles of human knowledge" (1710), denying the very existence of matter, argued that all objects of the external world constitute a "combination of sensations" that the person knows only their own feelings. Tourist Office. using the sensationalism of Locke, his theory of sensations as the only source of our knowledge about the world, Berkeley develops it in an idealistic direction. Sensations which, according to the materialist theory, give us a true picture of the outside world, are in Berkeley something samodavleyuschim. Subjective sensationalism Berkeley was subsequently taken up by German philosophers in the 18 - Fichte and Schelling, and in England - Jung. Following B. He examines the validity only as a set of ideas and experiences: in his view, . All rights pedstavleniya of the world can be wrong, . and different laws of reality (eg, . cause and effect) actually exist, . but only out of habit forced upon her man,
. All thoughts Jung imbued with the same denial of the materiality of the world, that of the B. English sentimentalist for his views in many respects similar B. and S. They are characterized by disappointment in the possibilities of human reason, doubt the knowability of the world, subjectivism.
. In English Sentimental poetry combine a sincere interest in the life and work of the people and the conservative idealization of the patriarchal
. peasant life
. The peculiarity of sentimentalism are peculiar to it somewhat pessimistic, and religious tedentsii.Syuda we shall place the same direction "kladbischeskoy Poetry, . which illustrates the mood of hopelessness depression, . which covers the petty-bourgeois strata of the population in England 18,
. Heroes' cemetery "ellegy and poems wandering among the graves, down to the crypt, see the bones and skulls, discussing the meaning of life, death, which equalizes the beggars and kings. Most theme of equality, which love to turn the ideologists of the bourgeoisie in its struggle with the nobility, acquired from the British sentimentalists religious dimension. This is just equality in death, equality before God (practical struggle with the nobility, they are no longer interested).