Edward Young

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Edward Young – Life, Works & Memorable Sayings

Explore the life and literary legacy of Edward Young (1683–1765), author of Night-Thoughts. Learn about his biography, major works, influence, and famous quotations.

Introduction

Edward Young (baptized July 3, 1683 – April 5, 1765) was an English poet, dramatist, and cleric whose most lasting fame rests on his long blank-verse poem Night-Thoughts, or The Complaint (1742–1745). This meditative, elegiac work on life, death, and immortality captured the spiritual melancholy of his time and became hugely popular in England and on the Continent.

Beyond Night-Thoughts, Young wrote tragedies, satires, sermons, and a prose treatise Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), in which he defended the value of genius and originality over mere imitation.

In this article, we explore his life, literary career, symbolism, influence, personality, and memorable quotations.

Early Life and Education

Edward Young was born at his father’s rectory at Upham, near Winchester, England. His father (also Edward Young) later became Dean of Salisbury. 3 July 1683.

He was educated at Winchester College and then matriculated at New College, Oxford in 1702. Afterwards, he migrated to Corpus Christi College. In 1708, he was nominated to a law fellowship at All Souls College.

In his earlier years, Young attempted to engage in literary and political life, seeking patronage and positions, publishing dedications, poems, and seeking favor from influential persons.

Clerical Career & Later Life

When Young was about 47 years old, he took holy orders (i.e. became an ordained clergyman). Rector of Welwyn, Hertfordshire (from 1730 onward).

Over his life he continued to seek further preferment and patronage, writing letters and dedicatory poems for patronage. Some readers later questioned his sincerity and motivations in such efforts.

Young died on April 5, 1765, in Welwyn.

Literary Career & Major Works

Night-Thoughts, or The Complaint

Young’s most enduring composition is The Complaint, or Night Thoughts on Life, Death & Immortality, often shortened to Night-Thoughts.

Published in successive “Nights” (parts) between 1742 and 1745, the poem is written in blank verse (i.e. unrhymed iambic pentameter). It emerged in the wake of multiple personal bereavements: the death of his stepdaughter in 1736, her husband in 1740, and his wife in 1741. These losses deeply influenced its tone of grief, reflection, and religious longing.

The poem meditates on mortality, the human condition, the afterlife, and the struggle for consolation. It was immensely popular in his time and across Europe, and it influenced subsequent writers and thinkers, especially in Germany (e.g. Goethe).

Other Works

Beyond Night-Thoughts, Young produced a variety of writings:

• The Love of Fame, the Universal Passion (1725–1728): a series of satires on ambition, fame, and the human propensity to pursue reputation.

• Several tragedies: Busiris, King of Egypt (1719), The Revenge (1721), The Brothers (written earlier, produced in 1753)

• Sermons and religious tracts.

• Conjectures on Original Composition (1759): a prose work addressed to Samuel Richardson in which Young argues for the importance of originality and genius as opposed to slavish imitation of classical models.

While his plays rarely remain in the repertoire today (his dramatic sense was considered weak), his long meditative poetry and his aesthetic and moral reflections earned him enduring recognition.

Style, Themes & Intellectual Outlook

Edward Young’s work exhibits key features and recurring themes:

• Melancholy and Meditative Tone: His style is introspective, elegiac, often steeped in somber reflection on mortality and suffering.

• Religious and Moral Focus: Themes of Christian faith, death, providence, immortality, and moral conduct recur throughout Night-Thoughts.

• Pursuit of Consolation: His poetry often seeks solace in religion and hope beyond earthly life.

• Originality vs. Imitation: In Conjectures on Original Composition, he defends genius and originality over classical imitation, anticipating Romantic ideas.

• Use of Blank Verse: He chose blank verse for Night-Thoughts, believing the form allowed more solemn expansiveness than rhyme.

• Personal Suffering as Material: His private griefs became poetic material, lending urgency and sincerity to his meditations.

Thus, Young is often placed in the Graveyard School of poetry — writers with contemplative, sometimes gloomy reflections on mortality and the afterlife.

Legacy & Influence

Edward Young’s influence is especially notable in the 18th and early 19th centuries:

• Night-Thoughts was widely read, translated into many European languages, and served as a source of spiritual and emotional solace to many readers.

• His Conjectures on Original Composition had a significant impact on the German Sturm und Drang movement and on ideas of genius in literary criticism.

• Goethe (as a young man) reportedly studied Young’s work and was influenced by it.

• Some elements of the Romantic sensibility — the valorization of expressive subjectivity, emphasis on melancholic introspection — can trace roots, at least indirectly, to writers like Young.

• Although his dramatic works have fallen into relative obscurity, his meditative and reflective poetry provides a window into 18th-century spiritual consciousness and the transition toward more emotionally expressive poetic forms.

Famous Quotations by Edward Young

Here are some of Edward Young’s more memorable lines (often drawn from Night-Thoughts and his other works):

• “Procrastination is the thief of time: Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene.”

• “At thirty a man suspects himself a fool; Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan; At fifty chides his infamous delay, Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve; In all the magnanimity of thought Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same.”

• “How blessings brighten as they take their flight.”

• “The man who consecrates his hours by vigorous effort, and an honest aim, at once he draws the sting of life and Death; he walks with nature; and her paths are peace.”

• “Life’s cares are comforts; such by Heaven design’d; He that hath none must make them, or be wretched.”

• “We are all born originals — why is it so many of us die copies?”

• “A friend is worth all hazards we can run.”

• “Less base the fear of death than fear of life.”

These lines reflect Young’s emotional sensitivity, moral concern, awareness of time and mortality, and his urge toward virtue and originality.

Lessons from Edward Young’s Life & Work

From Edward Young’s experience and poetry, we can draw several lessons:

1. Sorrow and loss can fuel deep creative expression. Young’s Night-Thoughts arose from bereavement and transformed grief into contemplative art.

2. Originality matters more than imitation. His insistence on authentic voice anticipates Romantic ideas about genius.

3. Time is precious. His meditation on procrastination and the fleeting nature of life warns against delay and distraction.

4. Marriage of faith and art. He sought moral and spiritual grounding in his work, reminding us that aesthetic and moral concerns need not be separate.

5. Perseverance amid modest recognition. Young labored many years, sought patronage, and endured mixed reception; yet his works eventually found wide readership.

6. Use personal suffering as bridge. He turned private pain into universal reflection — making his experience resonate with many.