The Grave: A Poem

by Robert Blair

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Genres: Poetry, Classics, Gothic, Art

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1743

About the author

Scottish poet and eldest son of the Reverend Robert Blair

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Jadranka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poema "Grob" - 5 ⭐
Pogovor Milene Dasukidis - 10 ⭐ zanimljivo i prikladno približavanje društveno-istorijskih i književnih okolnosti 18.veka običnom čitaocu.

[Marko Vasić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, nepatvorene li meditatio mortis! Bler pravi prelive od melanholije do poricanja, a sve opervaženo ironičnom kontemplacijom smrti iz više uglova – nekih svojstvenih čoveku, a nekih o kojima se samo može mniti. On ne zaziva muze, ali kaže:

Thy succours I implore,
Eternal king! whose potent arm sustains
The keys of Hell and Death.

Prvi deo poeme boji melanholija koju prožima memljivi foetor mortis, i kameni arkosolijumi i mauzoleji

‘Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms:
Where light-heel’d ghosts, and visionary shades,
Beneath the wan cold moon...

Blerov memento mori ne štedi nijedan sloj društva čoveku znan. Hodie mihi, cras tibi stići će bogate i siromašne, jednako kao i gorde i na vlasti moćne, učene i one što mačem se bore, a hladnoća groba obezvrediće telesno lepe i savladati telesno jake kada kucne njihov čas.

Now tame and humble, like a child that’s whipp’d,
Shakes hands with dust, and calls the worm his kinsman;
Nor pleads his rank and birthright: Under ground
Precedency’s a jest; vassal and lord,
Grossly familiar, side by side consume.

Zajedno će biti i varalice i prevareni, a ironično se Bler obraća lekarima, „sinovima Eskulapovim“

But why this apparatus Why this cost?
Tell us, thou doughty keeper from the grave,
Where are thy recipes and cordials now,
With the long list of vouchers for thy cures?

U drugom delu pesme, pesnik promišlja o neodređenosti „onog sveta“

Tell us, ye dead! will none of you, in pity
To those you left behind, disclose the secret?
Oh! that some courteous ghost would blab it out
What ‘tis you are, and we must shortly be.

Te obraća se smrti, prekorevajući njenu „nezajažljivost“ koja nikog poštedeti neće. Ali, na kraju, kao zrak svetlosti kroz mrak grobne kripte, Bler trijumfuje s hrišćanskim usklikom:

But know that thou must render up thy dead,
And with high interest too.—They are not thine,
But only in thy keeping for a season,
Till the great promised day of restitution;

Pohvalno je što ovo bilingvalno izdanje postoji i što se prevodilac potrudio da sačini i predgovor i pogovor dostojan pesnika. Prepev je skoro pa odličan, sa momentima Radičevićevskog i Disovog izričaja, s tim što bih u nekim segmentima upotrebio neke druge fraze koje bi, možda, pojačale efekat koji je pesnik želeo da istakne.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A prime example of the times before gothic horror - Blair’s graveyard poetry has strong themes of the macabre and engages the senses in its imagery. The only bit which felt strange was the ending when Blair decides to suddenly implement a religious message of Christian salvation - a cautionary tale, it could be argued - but it feels like an afterthought following the 700+ lines before it, which do not touch on that message at all (drawing similarities to Thomas Parnell’s Night Piece on Death, another graveyard poem which is consistent all the way through, but with less gothic tropes). Otherwise this is fun and perfectly spooky!

[Adam Carnehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the core works that makes up the so-called "Graveyard School" of poetry, this 18th century blank-verse poem by Robert Blair, a Scottish clergyman, is a meditation on the the inevitability of death due to original sin, and the certain hope of resurrection at "the last trumpet." The poem is imbued with a Calvinistic 'ethos' of the horrible destruction caused by sin, humanity's impotence at any attempt of saving itself, and the necessity of faith for salvation. Such themes, however, are certainly not unique to Calvinist Christianity.

Some scholars (such as Eric Parisot) have suggested that Blair's poem is self-destructive, becoming, as it were, a subjective experience of the grave itself, where the poetic mode itself becomes buried and all final hope of transformation (i.e., the final telos of poetry itself) is obscured. Parisot mistakenly sees the ending of the poem as a pessimistic letdown, a kind of nullification of everything Blair had said before. Rather, the final image of the bird settling down for the night is a kind of enfolding of everything that has come before; despite sin, despite feelings of hopelessness, despite the terrors of the grave, death is actually like a sleep. Actually, like a "doze" because it is so very temporary. This reflection comes after multiple lines about the resurrection which are also neglected by scholars. Without the final page or two, the poem remains a bleak look at a grave; with the final pages, the reader discovers, rather, that the grave is the site of renewal - the site, in fact, of God's demonstration of supernatural power and providential care:

Each soul shall have a body ready furnish'd;
And each shall have his own.—Hence, ye profane!
Ask not how this can be?—Sure the same power
That rear'd the piece at first, and took it down,
Can re-assemble the loose scatter'd parts,
And put them as they were.—Almighty God
Has done much more; nor is his arm impair'd
Through length of days: and what he can, he will:
His faithfulness stands bound to see it done.

Then, just after this:

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumbering dust,
Not unattentive to the call, shall wake;
And every joint possess its proper place,
With a new elegance of form, unknown
To its first state. Nor shall the conscious soul
Mistake its partner, but, amidst the crowd,
Singling its other half, into its arms
Shall rush, with all the impatience of a man
That's new come home; and, having long been absent,
With haste runs over every different room,
In pain to see the whole.

Blair's poetry is not negated; it's not as if the poem is designed to be destroyed and overcome. Rather, it, too is transformed by the power of God. Human speech, that is, poetry itself, receives "a new elegance of form, unknown to its first state" in the Kingdom to come.

[Joy Chalaby · Rating 4 out of 5]

"When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumb'ring dust, Not unattentive to the call, awakes"; while the world in flames typifies the renovation of all things, the end of Time, and the beginning of Eternity."

A short, haunting, beautiful poem about death, the grave, the resurrection, and the final judgement. Chilling, biblical language that moves deeply, as Blake's writing always does.

[Táda · Rating 2 out of 5]

One book on the history of English literature calls Blair's verse "intimate, quiet, and meditative." Britannica claims it presents its topic with "natural cheerfulness". But I don't know, to me the poem seems emotionally charged and sounds like the guy is screaming at me. Screams that death is the ultimate leveller, that all carcasses smell, that kings too will be eaten by worms, that knowledge and power and strength and riches don't matter in the grave. (We have to wait for later poets to add virtue to the list since everything is for the sake of piety in this poem.) It is certainly not afraid of sermonizing.
It is competently versified and has some nice bits and also some lovely proto-gothic ghoulishness, but it is quite lackluster compared to Gray's Elegy, the poem that is actually quiet and meditative, and also so great it makes us go read this one too.

[Samantha]

Recommended by Ruby Granger

[grace elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

don't really know how to describe this one, early gothic horror with some brilliant imagery from Revelations.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, especially since my copy has Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard appended to it. It was common to see the two of these bound together. I like that the Gray came later, since Blair's poem was very dark and grim. Gray's, while also profound, is a little lighter in spirit and a nice way to end an evening of reading about life and death. That could partly be due to its rhymed meter. I think I preferred the blank verse of Blair's poem when engaging such a subject.

Overall, very pleased to have encountered these poems.