Page 263 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
1. When was Thomas Gray born?
(a) 3 June 1688 (b) 1 January 1701
(c) 21 July 1714 (d) 26 December 1716
2. Where was Thomas Gray born?
(a) Bristol (b) Cardiff
(c) Liverpool (d) London
3. Where did Thomas Gray have his education in 1725-1734?
(a) Queen Mary School (b) Kilkenny Grammar School
(c) Eton College (d) Holy Family School
4. Which of the following subjects did Thomas Gray dislike?
(a) French (b) Greek
(c) Latin (d) Mathematics
5. Which poem of Thomas Gray has the words, “where ignorance is bliss,/’ Tis folly to be
wise”?
(a) Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College
(b) Ode on the Spring
(c) Ode to Adversity
(d) A Long Story
6. Who was with Thomas Gray during European tour 1739–1741 and quarrelled and separated
in Italy?
(a) Richard West (b) Horace Walpole
(c) Horace Mann (d) Thomas Ashton
7. When was Elegy Written in a country Churchyard published?
(a) 1751 (b) 1702
(c) 1738 (d) 1712
8. In whose praise did Thomas Gray compose Installation Ode?
(a) King of England (b) Archbishop of Canterbury
(c) Duke of Grafton (d) Prince of Wales
9. When did Thomas Gray die?
(a) 9 March 1780 (b) 5 June 1778
(c) 30 July 1771 (d) 21 October 1775
10. What caused Thomas Gray’s death?
(a) Gout (b) Drowning
(c) Malaria (d) Pneumonia

25.4 Thomas Gray: The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: Theme

Death Gray’s “Elegy” is one of the best-known poems about death in all of European literature. The
poem presents the reflections of an observer who, passing by a churchyard that is out in the country,
stops for a moment to think about the significance of the strangers buried there. Scholars of medieval
times sometimes kept human skulls on their desktops, to keep themselves conscious of the fact that

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