CC - VIII: Elegy written in a country churchyard as a pre-romantic | transitional poem

Thomas grey, precursors of the romantic movement, is a blend of the outgoing classical and the incoming romantic ideals. In other words, his poetry combines the features of both classical and romantic poetry. His "Elegy written in a country churchyard" is a typical pre-romantic or transitional poem and shows the coexistence of romantic and classical element.

                       To begin with, certain characteristics of Romanticism in the Elegy. First of all the poem expresses the poet sympathy for the obscure destiny of the common people lived far away from the madding crowd and Spent their days in huts and cottages. This adoration of the annals of the simple pupil is essential a romantic treat and grey introduces eat in the poem commemorating life of the simple people living in the country surroundings-"The short and simple annals of the poor". Secondly, there is a note of melancholy and pessimism which letter onwards cultivated and developed by the romantic poets, particularly kits and Shelley-"Full many gem of purest ray serene.... And waste its sweetness on the desert air". Thirdly, the love for nature and landscape, the solitary atmosphere of the night, the haunted places where the owl hoots, all clearly show that the poet has caught the spirit of romanticism in a subdued from. Fourthly, sweet and pensive lyricism each found all thought the poem.

          As has already been pointed out, the poem is romantic in its mood and stands as a transitional landmark between the period of classicism to that of romanticism. The poem possesses sometime typical elements of neo-classical poetry, especially in respect of style and versification. First, the dedicate or moralising tone of the poem confirms to the classical conversation. It seeks to convey certain moral lessons about human life and destiny. For example, the poet asks the rich and ambitions people not to make fun of the ordinary but useful work done by the poor farmers-

   "Let not ambition they are useful toil,

     Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;

     Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile

    The short and simple annals of the poor."

            

       Another classical features expressed in the poem is the poet's abundant use of personification and proper names(e g, 'Ambition', 'Grandeur', 'Memory', 'Honour', 'Milton') respectively.

              The diction and the use of a specific meter(alternating pentameter or hexameter lines) conform to the classical tradition. And the poem is marked by rhetorical devices with classical echoes.

                 To conclude, the Elegy is an interesting blend of classicism and romanticism. The mood, spirit or theme is romantic, while the style is classical. Thus, the poem is a pre-romantic poem in the true sense of the term.