Dec 4, 2008

The Complaint | The Complaint

At a glance:

Author: Edward Young
Type of Work: Philosophical poetry
Genres: Poetry, Elegy
Subjects: Immortality, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Christianity, Death or dying, Mortality, Cemeteries

Critical Evaluation:

NIGHT THOUGHTS, as it is best known, belongs to the long and rich tradition of Graveyard Poetry which received some of its original impulses or boosts through Sir Richard Steele’s TATLER Number 89 and Milton’s IL PENSEROSO. Steele affirmed that the “proper Delight of Men of Knowledge and Virtue” is “that calm and elegant satisfaction which the vulgar call Melancholy.” Milton had agreed, hailing “divinest Melancholy,” “whose saintly visage” is “O’erlaid with black, staid Wisdom’s hue.” Enough such mortuary...

[The entire page is 1207 words long]

The Complaint | The Complaint

At a glance:

Critical Evaluation:

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