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Analysis Of ' The ' A Pindaric Ode ' By Thomas Gray

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“The Bard. A Pindaric Ode” by Thomas Gray is a poem which has been carefully constructed to examine the idea of nationhood. Gray sought to explore the idea that there had been an ancient British state within the poem’s narrative, and the importance of Wales in that ancient nation. He uses several techniques to try and create a sense of shared history through the poem, despite it being entirely fictional. In order to give “The Bard” literary standing, and thus provide an effective platform to broadcast his views, the poet makes several careful and deliberate choices in the poem’s structure and language to create a sense age and grandeur for the poem. By referring to both to classical Greek poetry and popular and influential literary pieces, like Milton’s Paradise Lost (Gray 20), Gray manufactures standing for his poem. The full title specifies the poem as a ‘Pindaric Ode’. Though this was not an uncommon form of ode – and one which Gray used frequently – specifying that “The Bard” is a classical style of poem immediately sets the reader up with the understanding that this poem will be written with the Greek style in mind, and thus gives it an almost classical credibility. Although it was written before the Romantic period of literature, Gray’s use of landscape and nature, ask the reader to contrast the landscape to the actions of the English army and begs comparisons between physical nature and human nature. Gray, whilst linking the poem to ancient works and

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