Hands that the rod of riding may have swayed,
And waked to parody the rotal lyre.
Lyra Bicyclica. By J. S. Dalton, 1885.
——:o:——
IMITATIONS OF GRAY’S ELEGY.
Imitations of Gray’s “Elegy” are not only numerous, but are, as a rule, both long and dull. It is not, therefore, advisable to reprint them in this collection, but for the sake of completeness, some of the best must be enumerated.
William Mason, the poet, and biographer of Gray, ventured to write an imitation, entitled “An Elegy in a Churchyard in South Wales.”
Mason said his desire was to describe a day scene, so as to contrast it with the twilight scene of Gray’s “Elegy.”
But Mason’s presumption and self-sufficiency were extreme, not only could he venture to put forth this mawkish elegy, written in a churchyard by day, as a companion-piece to the far-famed twilight scene; but he also had the effrontery to tack a paltry tail-piece to Gray’s exquisite fragment on “Vicissitude,” and even believed himself capable of improving Gray’s epistolary compositions, although Gray was known to be one of the most fastidious, and most correct of writers. Mason’s tampering with Gray’s letters has been repeatedly exposed, and his imitations of Gray’s poetry now rest in merited oblivion. Another author, with almost equal temerity, ventured to publish a
SUPPLEMENT
to
Gray’s Elegy in a Church Yard.