| Young, Edward 1683-1765. English poet known for his dramatic monologue Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742-1745). |
Young, Edward
English poet, dramatist, and literary critic, author of The Complaint: or, Night Thoughts (1742-45), a long, didactic poem on death. The poem was inspired by the successive deaths of his stepdaughter, in 1736; her husband, in 1740; and Young's wife, in 1741. The poem is a blank-verse dramatic monologue of nearly 10,000 lines, divided into nine parts, or "Nights." It was enormously popular
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