Night thoughts (unsure)
by Edward Young
On This Page
Description
Young is said to have been a brilliant talker. Although Night Thoughts is long and disconnected, it abounds in brilliant isolated passages. Its success was enormous. It was translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Welsh and Magyar. In France it became a classic of the romantic school. Questions as to the "sincerity" of the poet did arise in the 100 years after his death. The publication of fawning letters from Young seeking preferment led many readers to show more question the poet's sincerity. In a famous essay, Worldliness and Other-Worldliness, George Eliot discussed his "radical insincerity as a poetic artist." If Young did not invent "melancholy and moonlight" in literature, he did much to spread the fashionable taste for them. Madame Klopstock thought the king ought to make him Archbishop of Canterbury, and some German critics preferred him to John Milton. Young's essay, Conjectures on Original Composition, was popular and influential on the continent, especially among Germans, as a testament advocating originality over neoclassical imitation. Young wrote good blank verse, and Samuel Johnson pronounced Night Thoughts to be one of "the few poems" in which blank verse could not be changed for rhyme but with disadvantage. The poem was a poetic treatment of sublimity and had a profound influence on the young Edmund Burke, whose philosophic investigations and writings on the Sublime and the Beautiful were a pivotal turn in 18th-century aesthetic theory. show lessTags
Member Reviews
The commentary book is superb, this is the first time this book has been published as originally imaged. Some extraordinarily fine Blake inages. An interesting read if you have never been exposed to "graveyard" poetry, somewhat out of fashion now but a wonderfully crafted set nonetheless.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
4+ Works 17 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Night thoughts (unsure) (unsure)
- Disambiguation notice
- There are two works with this title and author. It is not clear which work these copies belong to. If one is yours, please add something to the title to clarify. Then your copy can be separated and combined into either the 18... (show all)th century poem or the Dr Who play.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 11
- Popularity
- 1,999,589
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (5.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ASINs
- 3
