Thomas gray has sometimes been classified as a pre-romantic writer. romantic writers valued emotional experience over logical arguments, nature and common people over
organized society, and imagination over reason. what evidence from "elegy written in a country churchyard” supports gray's classification as a pre-romantic? your response should be at least one paragraph long.

Thomas Gray uses following characteristics of Romantic writers in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751)

Some characteristics of Neoclassicism in this poem include

Explanation:

A literary work is considered Pre-Romantic if it has characteristics of both  Neo-classicism and Romanticism - having only Romantic characteristics will make it Romantic and not Pre-Romantic.

Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” has both Neoclassic and Romantic characteristics.

Romantic characteristics of the poem include;

Theme of death

Setting: The poem is set in churchyard which has silence and loneliness (a Gothic setting which is characteristic of Romanticism such as in Ancient Mariner by S.T. Coleridge), and a village - again a romantic characteristic.

Subjectivity: The poet expresses his own thoughts about death using the pronouns "I" and "me" (Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey, Daffodils) which are subjective.

Nature: Rural setting, owl’s complaint, twittering of swallow, loud and shrill crowing of rooster are all symbols of nature.

Silence and loneliness

Melancholic mood

Neoclassic characteristics of the poem include;

Restrained literary rules: Each stanza has the same style and each line is iambic pentameter.

Personification of abstract ideas and nonliving objects, such as Earth, Fair Science , Melancholy, Memory, Honour etc.

Moralizing: The poem has a didactic lesson that rich people of the cities should not look down upon the poor people from villages.

So considering the romantic and Neo-classic characteristics of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, it is considered a Pre-Romantic poem.

the answer is academic paper

and the second should be college professor