Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert
Erfordert eine Authentifizierung
The Sublimation of History in Thomas Gray's The Bard
-
Mikhail Pashchenko
Veröffentlicht/Copyright:
15. Dezember 2008
Abstract
The essay investigates Gray's attempt to adapt the poetical strategies of his day to express progressive political and social ideas. The way in which Gray exploits the previous tradition of presenting social reality in poetry is the starting point of the current interpretation. Reconsideration of the historical material in the prophecy of the Bard is a challenge, however, which appeared to be too innovative and hence “obscure” for the majority of readers. The poem, which obviously refers to the prophecies in Shakespeare's dramas, aimed in fact to pronounce a judgement upon Gray's own age as well. As Gray places his action in British natural settings, arranged in a Miltonic sublime space, his utterance gains the ability to deliver certain political statements, in which the Whig conservative Utopia is identified. Gray's poetocentric social project appears then to be a radical response to his own meditations in the Elegy that no spiritual potential should ever be wasted on Earth.
Published Online: 2008-12-15
Published in Print: 2008-December
Sie haben derzeit keinen Zugang zu diesem Inhalt.
Sie haben derzeit keinen Zugang zu diesem Inhalt.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Hippocras Bag, Oil of Exeter and Manus Christi: Recipes in BL Harley 1706
- The Sublimation of History in Thomas Gray's The Bard
- The Lost Prodigal Son's Corporal Works of Mercy and the Bridegroom's Wedding. The Religious Subtext of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
- “The Poet's Voice”: Dialogicity and Cultural Regeneration in Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!
- The Handbook of World Englishes, eds. Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru & Cecil L. Nelson
- Identity, Community, Discourse: English in Intercultural Settings, eds. Giuseppina Cortese & Anna Duszak
- Connectives in the History of English, eds. Ursula Lenker & Anneli Meurman-Solin
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz, Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts. Wulfstan's Works: A Case Study
- Stefan Jurasinski, Ancient Privileges: ‘Beowulf’, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity; John M. Hill, The Narrative Pulse of ‘Beowulf’: Arrivals and Departures
- Alaric Hall, Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity
- Anthony Bale, The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350–1500
- Ancrene Wisse: A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants from Other Manuscripts, 2 vols., ed. Bella Millett
- The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 3: Oxford Oriel College, MS 79 (O), ed. Katherine Heinrichs; The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 4: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 581 (S.C. 987) (L), eds. Hoyt N. Duggan & Ralph Hanna III; The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 5: London, British Library, MS Additional 35287 (M), Eric Eliason, Hoyt N. Duggan & Thorlac Turville - Petre
- Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. With Critical Observations on their Works. Introduction and Notes by Roger Lonsdale
- Dieter Fuchs, Joyce and Menippos. ‘A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Dog’
- Claudia Drawe, Erinnerung und Identität in ausgewählten Romanen der Postapartheid
- Eingegangene Schriften
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Hippocras Bag, Oil of Exeter and Manus Christi: Recipes in BL Harley 1706
- The Sublimation of History in Thomas Gray's The Bard
- The Lost Prodigal Son's Corporal Works of Mercy and the Bridegroom's Wedding. The Religious Subtext of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
- “The Poet's Voice”: Dialogicity and Cultural Regeneration in Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!
- The Handbook of World Englishes, eds. Braj B. Kachru, Yamuna Kachru & Cecil L. Nelson
- Identity, Community, Discourse: English in Intercultural Settings, eds. Giuseppina Cortese & Anna Duszak
- Connectives in the History of English, eds. Ursula Lenker & Anneli Meurman-Solin
- Sara M. Pons-Sanz, Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts. Wulfstan's Works: A Case Study
- Stefan Jurasinski, Ancient Privileges: ‘Beowulf’, Law, and the Making of Germanic Antiquity; John M. Hill, The Narrative Pulse of ‘Beowulf’: Arrivals and Departures
- Alaric Hall, Elves in Anglo-Saxon England: Matters of Belief, Health, Gender and Identity
- Anthony Bale, The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350–1500
- Ancrene Wisse: A Corrected Edition of the Text in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 402, with Variants from Other Manuscripts, 2 vols., ed. Bella Millett
- The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 3: Oxford Oriel College, MS 79 (O), ed. Katherine Heinrichs; The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 4: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 581 (S.C. 987) (L), eds. Hoyt N. Duggan & Ralph Hanna III; The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive. Vol. 5: London, British Library, MS Additional 35287 (M), Eric Eliason, Hoyt N. Duggan & Thorlac Turville - Petre
- Samuel Johnson, The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. With Critical Observations on their Works. Introduction and Notes by Roger Lonsdale
- Dieter Fuchs, Joyce and Menippos. ‘A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Dog’
- Claudia Drawe, Erinnerung und Identität in ausgewählten Romanen der Postapartheid
- Eingegangene Schriften
