Answer:
Thomas Gray uses following characteristics of Romantic writers in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751)
- Theme (death)
- Setting (rural and Gothic)
- Subjectivity
- Nature (superiority of village, sounds of birds)
- Silence and Loneliness
- Melancholic mood
Some characteristics of Neoclassicism in this poem include
- Restrained literary rules
- Personification
- Moralizing
Explanation:
A literary work is considered Pre-Romantic if it has characteristics of both Neo-classicism and Romanticism - having only Romantic characteristics will make it Romantic and not Pre-Romantic.
Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” has both Neoclassic and Romantic characteristics.
Romantic characteristics of the poem include;
Theme of death
Setting: The poem is set in churchyard which has silence and loneliness (a Gothic setting which is characteristic of Romanticism such as in Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge), and a village - again a romantic characteristic.
Subjectivity: The poet expresses his own thoughts about death using the pronouns "I" and "me" (Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, Daffodils) which are subjective.
Nature: Rural setting, owl’s complaint, twittering of swallow, loud and shrill crowing of rooster are all symbols of nature.
Silence and loneliness
Melancholic mood
Neoclassic characteristics of the poem include;
Restrained literary rules: Each stanza has the same style and each line is iambic pentameter.
Personification of abstract ideas and nonliving objects, such as Earth, Fair Science , Melancholy, Memory, Honour etc.
Moralizing: The poem has a didactic lesson that rich people of the cities should not look down upon the poor people from villages.
So considering the romantic and Neo-classic characteristics of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, it is considered a Pre-Romantic poem.
