SOURCE: Wicker, Cecil V. “Young's Fear of Death; Evidence from the Night Thoughts.” In Edward Young and the Fear of Death: A Study of Romantic Melancholy, 66-79. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1952.

In the following essay, Wicker argues that Young's personal fear of death permeates Night Thoughts, and that while his hope of immortality is evident, his uncertainty runs throughout his work.

Pursue thy theme, and fight the fear of Death. 

Night Thoughts, Night IV

Young's most important work, The Complaint; or, Night Thoughts, has been left for separate consideration, since it is here that the dread of death all but dominates everything else. Fear is the very pattern of the poem, fear of that inevitable end which the poet could not forget, which he hoped and prayed might be “easy,” which, with a peculiarly pagan emphasis on the word, he regarded as his “fate,” which he...