Thomas Gray Thomas Gray was born in London into a broker’s family. He got very good school education, first at Eton and then at Cambridge. He left Cambridge without taking a degree.
Thomas Gray was one of the most important poets of the eighteenth century. This scholar and poet was the most famous for his poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." Thomas Gray was born on December 26, 1716 in Cornhill section of London, England. He was the only child in his family. In 1764 he had an operation from which he never recovered. At the age of fifty-five, Gray suffered a violent attack of gout 痛风in the stomach and finally died in his room on July 30, 1771 in Cambridge, London. He was buried beside his beloved mother at Stoke Poges churchyard, the scene of the "Elegy".
斯托克波吉斯(英国英格兰白金汉郡南部村庄，据信为格雷的《墓园挽歌》 的背景地)
Stoke Poges churchyard
He toured around Europe with Horace Walpole, author of the world famous Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto《奥特兰托的 古堡》 . In 1768 he was made Professor of History and Modern Languages at Cambridge. In his lifetime, he was known as one of the most learned persons and a very successful poet. He was not sociable. He declined the Poet Laureateship in 1657 and led a peaceful life as a scholar.
名作墓园挽歌的作者在所有早期的浪 漫主义诗人中,学识最为渊博,性格也最为通达. 年青时,他体质非常孱弱, 是他们家十二个孩子 中惟一幸存的一位.他的童年很不幸,父亲很粗 暴,并且后来他离开他深爱的母亲,不幸的童年 使他的一生在忧郁中度过, 在他的所有诗作中 都可看到这种伤感风格.
墓园挽歌弥漫着淡淡的忧伤,它是早期浪 漫主义诗歌的标志,是那个时代最完美的诗,它 属于那个时代.读弥尔顿的深思的人和格 雷的挽歌就等于看到了占据英国诗人思想 一个多世纪的”忧伤文学”的开端和完美阶段.
Comments on Gray Gray’s literary output was small. He wrote slowly and carefully. His poems are characterized by an exquisite sense of form. His masterpiece Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard once and for all established his fame as the leader of sentimentalist poetry and the spokesman of the Graveyard School.
What is an elegy? A lyric poem lamenting the death of an individual. It is usually formal in language and structure, and solemn or even melancholy in tone.
What is the poem’s stanza form? Quatrain 四行诗 What is the rhyme scheme of the elegy? abab (the first line rhymes with the third line, and the second line rhymes with the fourth line) What is the meter of the elegy? Iambic pentameter. (each line has ten syllables, an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable; it is iambic. Each line has five feet. )
不妨把挽歌的前8行重复朗读几遍，就可以
浪漫主义诗歌 感受到 作者高超的诗艺了。诗人使用抑扬格五音步隔行 押韵，节奏舒缓语调肃穆而哀思缠绵，为英语挽 歌树立了四行体(elegiac quatrain)的典范。以 前8行为例，有声“L”子音重复了23次，长母“O” 音重复了近10遍，再加上其它双元音和长元音的 大量反复，交叉营造出一种沉寂悲凉的气氛，非 常切合挽歌哀缓的主题，是以令人百读不厌。
What is the rhythm like in the elegy? The rhythm of the elegy is very slow. How is the “slowness” is realized? The poet used many diphthongs 双元音 and long vowels.
What is the thematic matter of the elegy? The thematic matter is weighty严肃的. It is the poet’s meditation upon the lives of the common people who were buried in the country churchyard. He showed his great sympathy for the poor, the lowly and the unrenowned who 荣耀之路终 were rejected 归通向坟墓 by fate, chance and the great ones. He stressed the fact that death was inevitable and that even “the paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
Elegy Written in a country Churchyard 墓园挽歌 格雷最著名的诗，全诗128行。1751年发表 后立即获得成功。这是一首用古典措辞的庄 严挽歌，赞扬微贱和默默无闻的纯朴农民的 坟墓。它的主题是：人不分穷富“终将进入 坟墓”,虽然这已是老生常谈，但是他提出 他不仅哀悼“村中粗野的祖先”,而且哀悼 包括诗人在内的所有人的死，这就使诗篇具 有普遍吸引力。这首诗成为浪漫主义诗歌的 先声，而在艺术技巧上达到古典主义诗艺的 完美境界。
What is the structure of the elegy? The elegy falls naturally into seven parts: Part 1: stanza 1 C 4: a description of the country scenery at twilight; Part 2: stanza 5 C 7: the life o
f the plowman before his death; Part 3: stanza 8 C 11: the satire on the fame and fortune of the great ones;
Part 4: 12 C 19: defense on the undisplayed talent and kind nature; including the famous quotation:
Part 5: 20 C 23: the dreariness凄凉 of churchyard; Part 6: 24 C 29: the poet’s imagination how people will describe him after his death; Part 7: 30 C 32: the epitaph碑文 the poet writes for himself.
Theme: a sentimental meditation upon life and death, esp. of the common rural people, whose life, though simple and crude, has been full of real happiness and meaning Poetic pattern: quatrains of iambic pentameter lines rhyming ABAB Mood: melancholy, calm
Study of Gray DElegy‖
《墓园挽歌》之所以是历代注评家青睐 的对象。是因为“第一，它凝聚了一个 时期中的某种社会情绪；其次，它有比 较完整的形式表达了这种情绪，在一定 程度上解决了如何革新
旧传统的问题， 具有较高的艺术成就”。(杨周翰语)
Thomas Gray
托马斯 格雷
In Elegy Writt
en in a Country Churchyard, Gray reflects on death, the sorrows of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholy. The poet compares the common folk with the great ones, wondering what the commons could have achieved if they had had the chance. Here he reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown, but mocks嘲笑 the great ones who despise the poor and bring havoc 大破坏 on them.
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