Gray and Goldsmith’s Attitudes towards Loss

Death as mans fate rear never be controlled by any maven or by anything. This is what matchless can infer from the verses of Thomas Gray and Oliver goldworker. These poems deal about conclusion or loss of feeling and all other losses human beingss be in life. Consequently, this paper is a comparative analysis of the military capabilitys of Gray and Goldsmith towards wipeout or loss in their poems.This includes a discussion of the similarities and differences of the poets attitude which can be deduced from the speakers involvement or attachment, the speakers feelings towards the subject and the lineament of the poems Elegy Written in a atomic number 18a Churchyard by Thomas Gray and The neglectful resolution by Oliver Goldsmith. Obviously, both poets have similar attitudes and feelings about the subject. However, Gray communicates stronger attitudes about loss or death in his poem than what Goldsmith articulates about the subject in his poem.To begin with, Grays Elegy Written in a land Churchyard is a poem composed of 128 lines grouped into stanzas and it focuses on the dead great deal buried in a country churchyard. While, Goldsmiths The Deserted Village is a poem consisting of 430 lines grouped into irregular number of lines per thought and it talks of the wretchedness of a village named Auburn. These poems have the following similarities. Initially, both poets ar emotionally attached to the topic on hand. Gray feels the loss as he contemplates of his aver death someday.Meanwhile, Goldsmith has individualally experienced the loss of apt memories in Auburn especially in the first 34 lines of the poem. Next, the poems Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and The Deserted Village march that death prevents humans from doing what they were used to doing and from experiencing the pleasures they used to experience. In lines 17 to 28 of Grays poem, the speaker cites that the dead can no longer charge up every morning with the sounds of the swa llow, the cock and the horn, be with their wife and children or go to work in the farm fields.Likewise, lines 243 to 250 of Goldsmiths poem say that those who die can no longer enjoy the different pleasures in life. Another is that according to the two poems, death or loss go forth come to any person regardless of his/ her social position, prestige and economic status. No single is exempted from experiencing death. It comes to the poor as well as to the rich. It comes to the kind and to the unkind. This is exemplified in the lines 33 to 40 of Grays poem which point that even the rich will die and their riches will not prevent death or loss from happening.It is likewise cited in the lines 107 and 109 of Goldsmiths poem that man will meet his latter end and will go charge to the grave. The lives of the village preacher in lines 140 to 187 and the village master in lines 196 to 240 both exemplify that death comes to anyone in the poem The Deserted Village. Subsequently, both poems show that a human being goes to another place after his or her life on earth is over. Gray mentions the word nirvana found in line 124 and God in the last line of the poem. Goldsmith also speaks of heaven in lines 112 and 188.This means that both poets believe that when death comes to a person, he or she has the hope of going to heaven to be with God who is the creator of man and of the universe. Lastly, the tone of Gray and Goldsmiths poems is too mournful, hopeful and wishful. Since the poems talk about death or loss, they be obviously in a state of mourning for the dead. Gray evokes an atmosphere of mourning in the first twelve lines of the poem with the images of the situationing day (line 1), the farmer going home, and the coming of darkness. Gray also uses the wailing of the owl in line 10 to conjure this tone.Meanwhile, Goldsmith uses the speech saddens in line 38, cries in line 46, griefs in line 84 among others to present this tone. But in spite of the tone of mourning in these poems, they also express the hopes and wishes of the poets that after death or loss, there will be a new life or a new beginning as alluded to in words heaven in lines 122 and 124 and the word Father and God in line128 of Grays poem. In addition, Goldsmith mentions the word heaven in line 188 and the phrase worlds beyond the grave in line 374 of his poem.The differences in the attitudes and feelings of Gray and Goldsmith towards loss in their poems are the following first, Gray seems to feel un compound in the poem because he uses the pronouns them and their most of the time. Perhaps, this is because he does not personally know the people who died and who were laid in the country churchyard. In fact, he was just making guesses or contemplating of possibilities of what these could have become and what could have happened to them if they did not die yet. In contrast, Goldsmith feels very involved because he uses the personal pronouns my and I for umpteen times in the poem.T his could mean that what he has written in the poem is ground on his very own experiences. Second, Gray demonstrates that death prevents anyone from achieving their ambitions or from discovering their hidden potentials. This can be interpreted from lines 45 to 64 where Gray elaborates the things that those who have died could have done in their lives if they were liquid alive. The speaker thinks of someone who could be a Penury in line 51, a Hampden in line 57, a Milton in line 59, and a Cromwell in line 60.On the contrary, Goldsmith does not mention the what- could-have-been in his poem because he primarily talks about the loss of the simple pleasures as part of village life. Third, Gray encourages that man should be ready to die because it is a part of the natural course of life. Just as a day in a persons life comes to an end as literally stated in lines 1 to 4 of the poem so does a persons life on earth ends. If there is a beginning, there is also an ending. Nothing is ever p ermanent in this world. Everything is temporary.What has been commonly quoted by many The only thing that does not change is change itself and There is an end to everything are indeed true. Gray tells us in the poem that humans command to prepare for that time when they will die because it is inevitable. He even makes himself an example of a person who gets ready for his death. As a matter of fact, he includes in lines 116 to 128 of the poem an epitaph that is to be written in his own grave. However, Goldsmith implies fear or suggests dread for the day of ones death in lines 363 to 370 of his poem.The words or phrases sorrows gloomd, lookd their last, wishd in vain, and shuddring gives an idea that the poet is not yet prepared to die if he feels that death is something that comes to everyone. Fourth, Gray presents that nothing can bring back a dead person to life. He asks in the form of rhetorical questions in lines 41 to 44 if the things he has mentioned are able to bring back a d ead persons breath. Since these are rhetorical questions, obviously the answer to all these is a resounding NO.There is really nothing that can be done or no one can do anything to make life come back to someone who is already dead. A realization can then be made based on this. A person has to do what he can do and what he wants to do while he/ she is still alive because when he dies he can never do them or he cannot return to life to do them. Goldsmith, on the other hand, does not talk about these things. Fifth, Gray feels that those who are still alive should honor and mean those who have died. This is implicitly expressed in lines 77 to 112.The words memorial (line 78), tribute (line 80), forgetfulness (line 85), unhonourd (line 93), and tale relate (line 94) are some of the hints that tell us that the poet wants to be honored. He also wishes in these lines that a friend or a kindred spirit (line 96) would remember him when he has died. Contrariwise, Goldsmith does not refer to these hopes in his poem. Instead he has other things revealed. Sixth, Goldsmith in The Deserted Village presents that loss is caused by a persons discontentment or his/ her desire for luxury and wealth.The loss specifically referred here is the loss of the ignorance of wealth which leads to the loss of the simple pleasures in life that is analogous to the loss of ones own life. It can be surmised from the poem that when humans lose their desire for the simple sources of joy and happiness and sooner desire for luxury and wealth, then destruction or loss of life results just like what happened to Auburn. The speaker implicitly condemns luxury which caused the desolation of Auburn in lines 51 to 56 and lines 385 to 390.The discontentment of the village people for the simple pleasures referred to in the words sports (line 18), pastime (line 19), sleights of art and feats of strength (line 22), dancing (line 25), and laughter (line 28) led the people to leave the land (line 50). This i dea is indeed true but Gray was not able to mention it in his poem. Seventh, according to Goldsmith, loss causes pain or is very painful on the part of the person who has lost someone or something very dear to him/ her.The words pain in line 82, vexations in line 95, and the phrase sorrow, guilt and pain in line 172 prove that it is painful to loss someone or even something. Likewise, the loss of happy memories can be as painful as having lost ones body part. Conversely, Gray is silent about pain in his poem. Perhaps, he does not consider a natural process of life which is death as something painful or something which causes sorrow. Eighth, Goldsmith proposes that loss comes after luxury, wealth and pleasures. So for him, one should stay away from these things.He even calls luxury as curst by Heavens decree in line 385. He also demonstrates through irony in lines 52 to 56 that when riches abound, mens lives deteriorate. In addition, lines 63 to 74 support the proposition that trades unfeeling train (line 63) resulted to mirth and manners (line 74) being lost. Finally, the tone of Grays Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard reveals his attitude or feelings for the poor, his readiness to die and his resignation to the inevitability of death whereas the tone of Goldsmiths poem is a mix of happiness, sadness, irony, and condemnation.Furthermore, the tone of Grays poem remains constant throughout the poem. In contrast, the tone of Goldsmiths poem changes its tone from one feeling to another such as being happy then sad, ironic then condemning. To sum it up, both Gray and Goldsmith feel that death or loss comes to every human being whether he or she is poor, rich, kind or unkind at anytime. When loss comes, one can no longer do what he or she used to do or would want to do. And that loss comes with hope of going to heaven to be with God.