With an Introduction by
Publication Number 31
Los Angeles
Williams Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University of California
1951
GENERAL EDITORS
H. RICHARD ARCHER, Clark Memorial Library
RICHARD C. BOYS, University of Michigan
JOHN LOFTIS, University of California, Los Angeles
ASSISTANT EDITOR
W. EARL BRITTON, University of Michigan
ADVISORY EDITORS
EMMETT L. AVERY, State College of Washington
BENJAMIN BOYCE, Duke University
LOUIS I. BREDVOLD, University of Michigan
CLEANTH BROOKS, Yale University
JAMES L. CLIFFORD, Columbia University
ARTHUR FRIEDMAN, University of Chicago
EDWARD NILES HOOKER, University of California, Los Angeles
LOUIS A. LANDA, Princeton University
SAMUEL H. MONK, University of Minnesota
ERNEST MOSSNER, University of Texas
JAMES SUTHERLAND, University College, London
H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., University of California, Los Angeles
To some the eighteenth-century definition of properpoetic matter is unacceptable; but to any who believe thattrue poetry may (if not "must") consist in "what oft wasthought but ne'er so well expressed," Gray's "Churchyard"is a majestic achievement—perhaps (accepting the definitionoffered) the supreme achievement of its century. Itssuccess, so the great critic of its day thought, lay in itsappeal to "the common reader"; and though no friend ofGray's other work, Dr. Johnson went on to commend the "Elegy"as abounding "with images which find a mirrour in everymind and with sentiments to which every bosom returns anecho." Universality, clarity, incisive lapidary diction—thesequalities may be somewhat staled in praise of the"classical" style, yet it is precisely in these traits thatthe "Elegy" proves most nobly. The artificial figures ofrhetorical arrangement that are so omnipresent in the antitheses,chiasmuses, parallelisms, etc., of Pope and hisschool are in Gray's best quatrains unobtrusive or even infrequent.
Often in the art of the period an affectation of simplicitycovers and reveals by turns a great thirst for ingenuity.Swift's prose is a fair e