Gothic

The Graveyard Poets

 Learning Objective
To engage with the common themes of the Graveyard Poets.

Success Criteria
• I can identify the main themes based on a poet’s language choices.
• I can piece together the meaning of archaic poems.
• I can create my own ode influenced by what I’ve learnt.
Fridge Magnet Poetry
Re-arrange the words to create your own lines of poetry.
There are no rules regarding punctuation.

a thoughts in death elegy dejection to in night

the friendship on the from ode written living

death piece a night grave twenty dead country

the in letters on melancholy churchyard an ode

Is there an obvious theme or semantic field?

Look up any words that you don’t know.
The Graveyard Poets
a night piece on death Thomas Parnell, 1721

friendship in death in twenty letters from the dead

to the living Elizabeth Rowe, 1728

night thoughts Edward Young, 1742

the grave Robert Blair, 1743

elegy written in a country churchyard Thomas Gray, 1751

dejection an ode Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1802

ode on melancholy John Keats, 1819

The Graveyard Poets

The Graveyard Poets, also

known as the Graveyard School,
were a loose collective of poets,
many of whom were also
clergymen, whose work focused
on death and bereavement.
They are often seen as an
influence on the Gothic and
Romantic authors and poets
such as those below, although
the term Graveyard Poets was
not coined until as late as 1898.
Graveyard Vigil
Each group will be given an excerpt from one of the following poems and
an activity sheet to complete:

A Night-Piece Elegy Written in a

The Grave
on Death Country Churchyard

Your task is to consider:

1. The title.
2. The morbid tone.
3. The key imagery.
4. The meaning of the poem.

Be prepared to feedback to the rest of the class.

Each group will need to appoint an artist, a scribe to make notes and
at least one person to report on your thoughts and ideas.
A Night Piece on Death
Excerpt from Thomas Parnell’s ’A Night-Piece on Death’ (1721) in
which King Death gives an address from his kingdom of bones

Now from yon black and fun'ral yew,

That bathes the charnel-house with dew,
Methinks I hear a voice begin Class Questions
(Ye ravens, cease your croaking din,
Ye tolling clocks, no time resound How does Parnell set
O'er the long lake and midnight ground); the scene?
It sends a peal of hollow groans,
Thus speaking from among the bones. How would you
“When men my scythe and darts supply, describe the
How great a King of Fears am I! character of
They view me like the last of things:
They make, and then they dread, my stings.
King Death?
Fools! if you less provoked your fears, Who is he speaking to
No more my spectre-form appears.
and what is
Death's but a path that must be trod,
If man would ever pass to God; his message?
A port of calms, a state of ease
From the rough rage of swelling seas.”
The Grave
Fourth stanza of Robert Blair’s ‘The Grave’ (1743)

Oft in the lone church-yard at night I’ve seen,

By glimpse of moon-shine, chequering through the trees,
The school-boy, with his satchel in his hand,
Whistling aloud to bear his courage up, Class Questions
And lightly tripping o’er the long flat stones
(With nettles skirted, and with moss o’ergrown) Who do you think
That tell in homely phrase who lies below. is narrating?
Sudden he starts! and hears, or thinks he hears,
What do you think it
The sound of something purring at his heels.
was that scared
Full fast he flies, and dares not look behind him,
the boy?
Till out of breath he overtakes his fellows;
Who gather round, and wonder at the tale
What do you think
Of horrid apparition, tall and ghastly,
they’ll do next?
That walks at dead of night, or takes his stand
O’er some new open’d grave; and, strange to tell,
Evanishes at crowing of the cock!
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Opening stanzas of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard’ (1751)

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Class Questions
Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Who do you think is
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, narrating?
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;
How does Gray set
Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r the scene?
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r, Who are ‘the rude
Molest her ancient solitary reign. forefathers’?

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
Grow Your Own
Just as Coleridge and Keats were inspired by the Graveyard Poets, you
are now going to use one of the titles of their poems to write your
own ode to darkness.

Dejection: An Ode

Ode to Melancholy

The only rule in writing poetry is

that there are no rules.

• It can be personal or impersonal.

• It can rhyme or it can be written in free verse.
• It can contain imagery or it can be plain
and unembellished.

Express yourself in whichever way you think apt.

Reap the Harvest
Submit what you think is the
most effective word, phrase or
line in your poem.

We are going to compile these and

then produce a fridge magnet-
style class poem.