In an ode, William Collins lamented the passing of a contemporary poet. The ode began with the line: "In yonder grave a Druid lies." Name the poet whose passing Collins laments.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

UGC NET Paper 2: English 22nd Dec 2018

Answer 1

The correct answer is "James Thomson".

Key Points

Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson (1749) by Williams Collins in an elegy.
The ode laments the death of his contemporary poet James Thomson.
James Thomson (1700 – 1748) was a Scottish poet and playwright.
He was known for his poems The Seasons and The Castle of Indolence, and for the lyrics of the work "Rule, Britannia!"
In this opening line, Collins calls Thomson a 'Druid' which means a priest or a magician as per the Celtic religion.

Therefore, the correct option is "option 4".

Important Points

William Collins (1721 – 1759) was an 18th-century English poet noted for writing lyrical odes.
As a poet, Collins was considered second in influence only to Thomas Gray who wrote a similar genre.
The lyrical odes of Collins were a progression from Augustan poetry towards the lyrical poetry of the Romantic era.
His important Odes are Persian Eclogues (1759), Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1746), and Verses humbly address'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer on his edition of Shakespeare's works (1743).