"The voice of nature" in Gray's Elegy.
Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" commemorates a problematic sexuality that traditional readings of the poem's "melancholy" usually ignore. By reconsidering the poem in light of theories of abjection, this essay uncovers the powerful poetic expression of a sexuality at odds with mid-century culture and shows how the poet's awareness of his own homosexuality shaped the familiar features of the most popular poem of the eighteenth century.
Haggerty
G E
GE
Department of English, University of California, Riverside 92521-0323.
D004739:England; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D008093:Literature, Modern / Q000266:history*; D008297:Male; D011037:Poetry as Topic / Q000266:history*