Unearthing Gothic Part 1 - The Graveyard School

The Graveyard School of poets was in existence between 1740 and 1780. Famous poets included Rebert Blair, William Cowper, Edward Young and Thomas Gray.

The genre focussed on emotional responses to death, nostalgia and contemplation of human mortality. The poems written were Elegies and often contained a mourning strain. Such works also examined death as a transition.

Typical contents of Graveyard Poetry included:

·         Tombs

·         Graveyards

·         Churchyards

·         Funerals

·         Memorials

It is thought that these poems were written in opposition to the Augustin teachings of decorum and the sinful nature of anything piteous.

A well- known example of a work by a Graveyard Poet is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Church Courtyard which was penned in 1743 and contemplates the deaths of villagers.

‘The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day…’

The work ‘knell’ would be used in association with funerals and thus the end of the day and the returning home are tropes for death or perhaps transcendence.

The poem was written by Gray following the death of a fellow poet and published in 1751. Although it is considered a famous example of The Graveyard Poets, Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory argue that it should not be classed as such because it ‘transends its limitations’.

You may also like to consider Edward Young’s Night Thoughts written in 1745 mulling over the death of old friends and mortality as a human condition. The work is a lengthy poem written upon nine days. It is also known as The Complaint.

Whatever our views on the Graveyard Poets, they were responsible for paving  the way for the Gothic Literary scene!