Mourning and Melancholy / Professor's Corner

Session title: Mourning and Melancholy in Two Poems by Thomas Gray. Presenter:   Dr. Ashley Bender, Texas Woman's University.  

Date and location: Wednesday,   June 11, 7:00-8:30 p.m. 

Location of the South Branch Library: 3228 Teasley, Denton, TX  76210.  The South Branch Library is just south of the Teasley & Lillian Miller intersection.

Series: Professor's Corner: A Literary Discussion Group.  

Session description:  Thomas Gray's contribution to English letters might be considered inversely proportional to his poetic output. Although the poet published only a handful of poems (13-14) during his lifetime, his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" and "Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West" are widely anthologized. Perhaps more significantly, they offer readers a glimpse of the changing nature of English poetry in the middle of the eighteenth century, serving as a bridge of sorts between the
Augustans who preceded him and the Romantics who followed. In this session of Professor's Corner, we will examine these two elegies, paying special attention to the function of mourning and melancholy. What do mourning and melancholy in these poems reveal about the state of English poetry? What do they reveal about our author?  

Background on presenter:  Dr. Bender is an adjunct instructor at Texas Woman's University. She earned her Master's and Doctoral degrees from the University of North Texas. Although she specializes in Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature, especially drama, her scholarly interests range from Renaissance and early seventeenth-century drama to (some) Romantic poetry of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.  Dr. Bender has presented at Professor's Corner previously.  

Cost: This program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Reading material: The reading made available in advance by the presenter can be obtained the following ways:  by following the link(s) above; by accessing the material through  the calendar page of the Denton Public Library's website--click on the calendar link from the front page and go to the session date); by looking for the attachment to this e-mailed announcement (if there is one); by e-mailing the series coordinator.  Reading in advance is encouraged but not required.  

Coordinator: Fred Kamman, Denton Public Library; Fred.Kamman@cityofdenton.com;  940-349-8752. Producer: Dr. Stephen Souris, Texas Woman's University; SSouris@twu.edu; 940-898-2343.

 "This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities."