Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
1700s Poetic Movements
Graveyard Poets, also called Churchyard Poets, were 18th century poets who focused their work on human mortality. The poems often took place in a graveyard. Thomas Gray is probably the best known of these poets. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Sonnet on the Death of Richard West by Thomas Gray
In vain to me the smiling mornings shine,
And red'ning Phobus lifts his golden fire;
The birds in vain their amorous descant join;
Or cheerful fields resume their green attire:
These ears, alas! for othe