Death-the Gate Of Eternal Life

Pastoral elegy is originated from classical Greek literature to any poem written in the elegiac couplet. Later in the seventeenth century the term was applied particularly to poems of mourning for particular person in England from Milton's Lycidas. The thesis will focus on Milton's Lycidas and Shelley's Adonais and this thesis is divided into five parts:The first part is introduction: In this part, it will introduce the origin and development of the pastoral elegy, and it will introduce the purpose of writing this thesis and the reason why the study chooses those two works.The second part introduces the background of writing the work and the life of Milton and Shelley, and it also introduces the critic studies about those two works.The third part studies the proper using myth to mourn the dead, In this part, the thesis studies the proper use of myth to mourn the dead and highlights its goal, that is, death—the gate of eternal life. In Lycidas it will focus on Camus and Orpheus and in Adonais focus on Adonais and Urania.The fourth part will compare the death—the gate of eternal life, and compare the way of eternal life. In Lycidas, to be eternal is through the way of living in the pastoral world, natural world, Christian world and the blest world. In Adonais to be eternal is through the way of living in the belief of one soul and the power of the poetry.The fifth is a conclusion part: Through the comparative study of Milton's Lycidas and Shelley's Adonais, this thesis concludes the theme that the pastoral elegy is about death—the gate of eternal life, and concludes that Milton's Lycidas is not like what Samuel Johnson said in his Life of Milton "marked too high" because of its Leisure of fiction but a truly excellent work.