The Graveyard Poets

By: Thomas Gray, Thomas Dermondy, Hannah Cowley

Narrated by: Richard Mitchley, Ghizela Rowe, Gideon Wagner

At first thought this seems an unlikely area to find fine poetry. The Graveyard Poets, also known as 'Churchyard Poets' or 'the Boneyard Boys' began in pre-Romantic days with a leaning towards gloom, melancholy and the general decay of churchyards. It should be remembered that in the 18th century city graveyards were a teeming mass of overcrowding and disease, their country brethren better but hardly idylls of worship.

What would eventually lead to the Gothic literary genre began, in the main, with reflections by Christian clergymen upon God, mortality and the assumed afterlife.

And in their musings are classics from such talented poets as Thomas Gray, Thomas Parnell, James Thomson and Edward Young, together with many others who elevate words from a perhaps murky underworld to examples of poetic beauty which few can rival.

This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialised imprint from Deadtree Publishing. Our range is large and growing and covers single poets, themes, and many compilations.

Public Domain (P)2019 The Copyright Group

Romantic Grandeur

This trio of sophisticated readers offer us a grim but fascinating sample of the Romantic and Pre-Romantic poems of the “Graveyard School.” A treat for poets and English majors.