Pyramid of Cestius an essential sight for many who undertook the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was much admired by architects, becoming the primary model for pyramids built in the West during this period. Percy Bysshe Shelley described it as "one keen pyramid with wedge sublime" in "Adonaïs", his 1821 elegy for John Keats. In turn the English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy saw the pyramid during a visit to the nearby Protestant Cemetery in 1887 and was inspired to write a poem, "Rome: At the Pyramid of Cestius near the Graves of Shelley and Keats", in which he
Monody on the Death of Chatterton many poets that he admired along with having a lot of experience with his own debt and poverty. The second edition shows a stronger influence of Gray and the elegy form. Gray's "The Bard" influences the poem's discussion of Chatterton as a poet, the "Elegy" influences the poem's discussion of Chatterton's solitude, and "The Progress of Poesy" influences the discussion of Chatterton's youth. Like Gray's poetry, the poem relies heavily upon personification and Coleridge borrows phrases from Gray. Even Coleridge's Chatterton and Gray's Bard share a similar character that is only separated by the actual biographical events of Chatterton's life