A Comparison of Thomas Grays Elegy (Eulogy) Written in a Country Churc

A Comparison of Thomas Grays elegy (Eulogy) Written in a Country Churchyard and Bryants Thanatopsis Thomas Gray and William Cullen Bryant both chose to write about nature and death being intertwined. Since Thomas Gray lived in a judg workforcet of conviction of social injustice, he chose to use death to illustrate the problems inherent in a socially stratified society. William Cullen Bryant, on the other hand, lived in a quick expanding young nation that cherished the vast amounts of untouched nature and he used death to illustrate how man fits into the universal truth of the earth. However, both men believed that death rendered all men equal in that all went to their final resting place in Mother Natures bosom. While Grays elegy Written in a Country Churchyard comes across as a social commentary on the English peasants and Bryants Thanatopsis serves as a catalog of American Romantic beliefs, both believe that one essential listen to nature, that death makes all men equal, an d that man returns to nature by and by death. To compare how the poems minor themes are similar, one must starting time understand their major themes differences. Elegy differs so greatly from Thanatopsis because they came from vastly different times and countries. Gray wrote Elegy in eighteenth century England after the death of one of his friends. Influenced by the English Romantics like Gray, Bryant, who spent much of his time out in the wild, wrote Thanatopsis in praise of natures splendor. Elegy appears at first to be solely about death but emerges as a social commentary on the plight of the poor. Gray first explains how the commoners delight in the simple life of working in the fields and enjoying their families while Chill Penury held them back from gr... ... Brady, Frank. Structure and Meaning in Grays Elegy Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. unseasoned York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 7-17. Carper, Thomas. Grays Personal Elegy Thomas Grays Ele gy Written in a Country Churchyard. smart York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 39-50. Lonsdale, Roger. Poetry of Thomas Gray Versions of the Self Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 19-38. McLean, Albert. William Cullen Bryant. New York Twayne Publishers, Inc, 1964. 65-81. Smith, Eric. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Thomas Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. 51-67. Peckham, Harry Houston. Gotham Yankee. New York Russell and Russell, 1971. 31-35.