SOURCE: "The Romantic Movement Exemplified in Gray," in The Beginnings of the Romantic Movement: A Study of Eighteenth-Century Literature, Gordian Press, 1968, pp. 155-70.

In the following essay, originally published in 1895, Phelps traces the transition in Gray's works from Neoclassicism to Romanticism.

A chronological study of Gray's poetry and of the imagination and love of nature displayed in his prose remains, is not only deeply interesting in itself, but is highly important to the history of Romanticism. In him, the greatest literary man of the time, we find the best example of the steady growth of the Romantic movement. But before proceeding to the discussion of this, a word on Gray's sterility is necessary. The view given by Matthew Arnold in his famous essay¹ is entirely without foundation in fact. The reason why Gray wrote so little was not because he was chilled by the public taste of the...