Poems Of Graveyard (shelley,gray Unamuno)

7 Pages 1848 Words

Alberto López Correa
Professor Cabezas Coca
Literatura Romántica Victoriana Eduardiana
29 Dic 2001


POEMS OF GRAVEYARD

Shelley´s “A Summer Evening Churchyard”, Gray´s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “En un cementerio de lugar castellano” by Unamuno

Death, as the greatest human truth, is and an excellent topic in poetry, beholded sometimes as a fearful hour, sometimes as the definitive peace. There is a calidoscopic view of these three authors about death and the place where it dwells; the prerromanticism of Gray, the full romanticism of Shelley and the anguish of life of Unamuno.

Shelley stresses the idea of peace and rest that Death provides. As a romantic he makes of Death a magical thing, one more step in the circle of life. Nature plays a very important role; Summer comes before Atumn as Twilight comes before death. Death is the last of the mysteries, the last of the dreams. The whole poem is deeply evocative
“They breathe their spells towards the departing day
Encompassing the earth, air, stars and sea
.../Responding to the charm with its own mistery” (L. 7-10)
Death receives several names; Twilight (5), Obscurest Glen (6) departing day (7) etc. Life is a dream or just an illusion for many authors like Calderón or Plato (very important for romantics), but death is also for some like Quevedo;
“No me queda ya que soñar, y si en la visita de la muerte no despierto, no hay que aguardarme. Si te pareciere que ya es mucho sueño, perdona algo a la modorra que padezco; y si no guárdame el sueño, que seré yo sietedurmiente de las postrimerías” (Quevedo, “Sueño de la muerte” p.182)
We are all asleep, dreaming we have a life, and when we die we are awakening to a new life, this may be the idea reflected in the poem. That´s why Shelley´s depiction of it is “Tus solemnized and softened, death is mild /and terrorless as this serenest night” (l. 25). The next line (l. 2...