Edward Young Summary

Although celebrated as "the learned, pious and incomparable Dr. Young" (as reported by biographer Harold Forster) by generations of British, Continental, and American readers of his Complaint; or, Nig... Read more

In the following excerpt from his commentary on Young's Night Thoughts, Melmoth discusses the style, imagery, and language of the "Ninth Night"—writing in the form of a let... Read more

In the following excerpt from her full-length study of the "aesthetics of the infinite" Nicolson discusses eighteenth-century concepts of the sublime and identifies Young as a perfect ex... Read more

Below, Odell explores the ways in which "Young fully adopts the theory of divine poetry inherited from the preceding centuries and modified for the eighteenth century." Such prominent... Read more

In the following excerpt Cornford analyzes several themes in, and contexts for, Young's Night Thoughts. The Grandeur of My Subject Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night? (... Read more

In the following excerpt from his study of Preromanticism, Brown gives an overview of Young, focusing on his Night Thoughts and locating him in the literary tradition. …Nowhere is the musing... Read more