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Throughout the eighteenth century several talented poets arose during the era, Thomas Gray among them. Thomas Gray was a scholar of Greek and history, which he demonstrated at Cambridge University. Amid the numerous masterpieces of literature written during the eighteenth century, Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is one of the most appealing and most perfect poems of its time. Gray's Elegy contrasts the simplicity and virtue of the past with the vain and boastful present. He states that the growing age of industrialism should not ridicule their "useful toil," nor obscure over their "homely joys," nor hear a recital of their "short and simple annals" with contempt. He also expresses that all life's endeavors, whether positive or negative, are made useless by the shadow of the tomb.
Published in 1751, Gray's Elegy underwent nine years of composing and revising. The only reason Gray had not spent more time perfecting his poem was because Gray had learned that a......

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Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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