(H) THE ELEGY AND THE PASTORAL ELEGY ~ Literary Hunt

(H) The Elegy and the Pastoral Elegy

There are two forms of Elegy:

(I) Simple Elegy
(II) Pastoral Elegy

(1) Simple Elegy

It is a poem of mourning or lamentation on the death of a somçone. It may also be written as a tribute to someone or something lost, such as the fall, of a city, or defeat in a battle, or some kind of national catastrophe. It is judged by its theme or subject-matter and not by its meter or stanza form. An elegy is a poem of mourning on the death of a particular person such as Milton's 'Lycidas' on the death of his friend Edward King, Tennyson's 'In Memoriam' on the death of Arthur Hallam, W.H. Auden's on the death of W.B. Yeats, Shelley's "Adonais' on the death of Keats.

(II) Pastoral Elegy

It is developed through pastoral conventions and classical mythology. It is presumed that the poet is a shepherd mourning the death of a fellow Shepherd. The whole imagery of goats, sheep, pastoral goods and goddesses and fauns and satyrs is drawn in the Pastoral Elegy.

A.R. Entwistle says, "Sometimes Death is the inspiration and sole theme; at other times it is merely the common starting-point from which poets have launched various themes speculations on the nature of death and the hereafter, tributes to friends, the poet's own mood, even literary criticism." Tennyson in 'In Memoriam' reflects upon the puzzle of life and destiny, and cautions his age not to renounce faith in the pursuit of knowledge :

"Let knowledge grow from more to more.
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May make one music or before."

Matthew Arnold in Rugby chapel, an elegy on his father's death, makes reflections on "the course of the life of mortal men on earth." Gray's Elegy "Written in a Country churchyard' reflects upon the mortality and vanity of human life :

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of
power"
And all that beauty, all that wealth c'er
gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave"

MAJOR ELEGIES IN ENGLISH

sn no'	Poet's name	Title of the Elegy	The person whose Death is mourned
1	John Skelton	Dirge on Edward IV	King Edward IV
2	Spencer	Astrophel (1586)	Philip Sidney
3	Milton	Lycidas(1637)	Edward King
4	Dryden	Heroic stanzas on the Death of Cromwell	Cromwell
5	Gray	Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard	Mankind in general
6	Shelley	Adonais(1821)	Keats
7	William Collins	In Yonder Grave a Druid Lies	James Thomson
8	Tennyson	In Memoriam (1850)	Arthur Hallam
9	Matthew Arnold	Thyrsis(1861); Rugby Chapel	A.H Clough Arnold's Father
10	W.H Auden	In Memory of W.B. Yeats	W.B Yeats

PASTORAL ELEGIES

sn no'	Poet's name	Title of the Elegy	The person whose Death is Mourned
1	Milton	Lycidas (1637)	Edward King
2	Shelley	Adonais	Thyrsis
3	Matthew Arnold	Thyrsis(1861)	A.H Clough

SOME NON-SERIOUS ELEGIES

#	Poet's name	Title of the Elegy	The person whose Death is mourned
1	Oliver Goldsmith	Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog	A Mad Dog
2	Gray	On the death of a Favourite Cat	A Cat

OBJECTIVE TYPE OF QUESTIONS

1. Whose death does Shelley mourn in Adonais?
(a) Keats
(b) Sidney
(c) Young
(d) Chatterton

2. Shelley in his Adonais says:
"When, like Apollo, from his golden bow
The Pythian of the age one arrow sped."
Here Pythian is referred to :
(a) Southey
(b) Byron
(c) Coleridge
(d) Wordsworth

3. Why did Gray choose the Churchyard at Stoke
Poges to lay the scene of his great Elegy?
(a) Because he himself expressed his desire
to be buried there
(b) Because it was near his home town
(c) Because only the rustics were buried there
(d) Because his mother was buried there

4. Whose death does Matthew Arnold mourn in
his elegy Thyrsis?
(a) A.H. Clough
(b) Thomas Gray
(c) Christina Rossetti
(d) Tennyson

5. Gray wrote the famous Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard. On whose death is this
Elegy wrote?
(a) On the mortality of mankind
(b) On the death of poor country rustics
(c) On the death of the poor men of his village
(d) On the death of those who laugh at the
the fate of the poor men

6. The death of W.B. Yeats is mourned in an
elegy entitled In Memory of W.B. Yeats. Who
is its writer?
(a) T.S. Eliot
(b) George Bernard Shaw
(c) W.H. Auden
(d) Hardy

7. Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
begins with the line:
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."
What is the meaning of 'Curfew' ?
(a) Time of sunset
(b) The ringing of bells in the evening in the church
(c) Dusk time
(d) Evening prayer in the church

8. Spenser mourns the death of Sidney in an
clergy. Choose the correct title :
(a) Amoretti
(b) In Memorium
(c) Astrophel
(d) Lycidas

9. Milton wrote Lycidas to mourn the death of:
(a) Spenser
(b) Ben Jonson
(c) Marlowe
(d)Edward Young

10. Lycidas is :
(a) A conventional elegy
(b) A pastoral elegy
(c) A classical elegy
(d) An elegy of personal grief

11. Shelley in his elegy Adonais refers to "the
herded wolves" who were responsible for his
early death. Who were these ?
(a) The Apothecaries where he served in his
early career
(b) The Scotch Reviewers who condemned his
poetry
(c) Some unknown enemies
(d) Fanny Brown and her family members

12. Dryden wrote elegy on the death of
Cromweil. The correct title is :
(a) Lamentation on the Death of Cromwell
(b) Remembrance
(c) Heroic Stanzas on the Death
(d) A Homage to Cromwell

13. A non-serious elegy on the Death of a Mad
Dog was written by :
(a) Shelley
(b) Gray
(c) Cowper
(d) Goldsmith

14. Whose death does Arnold mourn in Rugby
Chapel ?
(a) His teacher who taught him at school level
(b) His father
(c) His friend A.H. Clough
(d) Not exactly known

15. Whose death is mourned in 'In Memorium' by Tennyson :
(a) Joseph John
(b) Tiaras
(c) Arthur Hallam
(d) Robert Cleeve

16. Urania' is referred to as the Mother of Keats
in Adonais. VWho was Urania ?
(a) The goddess of fate
(b) The patron goddess of poets
(c) A classical goddess
(d) A pastoral goddess

17. In Lycidas Milton writes :
That two-handed engine at the door,
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no
more'.
What is Milton hinting at in these lines ?
(a) That God will punish the corrupt Royalists
(b) That God will punish the corrupt
politicians
(c) That God will punish the corrupt
clergymen
(d) That God will punish all the enemies of
democracy

18. Where was Gray himself buried on his death ?
(a) In a Churchyard near Buckinghamshire
(b) In the Churchyard of Stoke Poges
(c) In a Churchyard near Casterbridge
(d) In a Churchyard in the vicinity of London

19. Whom does Shelley call Wolves' in Adonais :
(a) Critics and Journalists
(b) Keats' wife and daughter
(c) Poets and authors
(d) King and courtiers

20. In which meter and stanza form os Gray's Elegy written?
(a) In iambic pentameter
(b) In four-line Spenserian stanza
(c) In pairs of Heroic couplets
(d) In Terza Rima.

(H) THE ELEGY AND THE PASTORAL ELEGY

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