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Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard By Thomas Gray

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

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Page 1: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

By Thomas Gray

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Course title: eng2216

Teacher: Areej Al-Omrani

Contents:

1. Mid-Late Eighteenth Century

2. Thomas Gray

3. The background of the poem

4. The poetic form

References:

1.Paul Goring, Eighteenth Century Literature & Culture

2.William Harmon, The Poetry Toolkit

3.Cleanth Brooks, Understanding Poetry

4.Jonathan D. Culler, Structuralist Poetics

5.The British Encyclopedia

6.Various websites

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The Political Features of Mid-Late Eighteenth Century

The most striking political feature of the times was the rise of constitutional and party government. The two main parties were so well balanced that power shifted easily from one to the other. To overturn a Tory or a Whig cabinet only a few votes

were necessary, and to influence such votes London was flooded with pamphlets. Even before the great newspapers appeared, the press had become a mighty power in England, and any writer with a talent for argument or satire was almost certain to be hired by party leaders. Addison, Steele, Defoe, Swift,--most of the

great writers of the age were, on occasion, the willing servants of the Whigs or Tories. So the new politician replaced the old nobleman as a patron of letters.

Leaders of Great Britain

George II (1683-1760) he is depicted as a weak buffoon, governed by his wife and ministers. He was born in Germany and German is his first language. He had no interest in reading, or in the arts and sciences, and preferred to spend his leisure

hours stag-hunting on horseback or playing cards.

George III (1738-1820) his reputation in America was one of a tyrant and in Britain he became "the scapegoat for the failure of imperialism". He is often remembered as "The Mad King" and "The King Who Lost America".

Social Life

Another feature of the age was the rapid development of social life. In earlier ages the typical Englishman had lived much by himself; his home was his castle, and in it he developed his intense individualism; but in the first half of the eighteenth century some three thousand public coffeehouses and a large number

of private clubs appeared in London alone; and the sociability of which these clubs were an expression was typical of all English cities. Meanwhile country life was in sore need of refinement. The influence of this social life on literature was inevitable. Nearly all writers frequented the coffeehouses, and matters discussed

there became subjects of literature; hence the enormous amount of eighteenth-century writing devoted to transient affairs, to politics, fashions, gossip. Moreover, as the club leaders set the fashion in manners or dress, in the correct way of taking snuff or of wearing wigs and ruffles, so the literary leaders emphasized formality or

correctness of style, and to write prose like Addison, or verse like Pope, became the ambition of aspiring young authors.

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Spread of Empire

Two other significant features of the age were the large part played by England in Continental wars, and the rapid expansion of the British empire. These Continental wars, which have ever since influenced British policy, seem to have

originated (aside from the important matter of self-interest) in a double motive: to prevent any one nation from gaining overwhelming superiority by force of arms, and to save the smaller "buffer" states from being absorbed by their powerful neighbors. The expansion of the empire, on the whole the most marvelous feature

of English history, received a tremendous impetus in this age when India, Australia and the greater part of North America were added to the British dominions, and when Captain Cook opened the way for a belt of colonies around the whole world.

Poetry (pre-romanticism)

The Pre-Romanticism is a cultural movement in Europe from about the 1740s onward that preceded and presaged the artistic movement known as Romanticism1. Chief among these tends was a shift in public taste away from the

grandeur, austerity, nobility, idealization, and elevated sentiments of Neoclassicism or Classicism toward simpler, more sincere, and more natural forms of expression. This new emphasis partly reflected the taste of growing middle class, who found the refined and elegant art forms patronized by aristocratic society to be artificial

and overly sophisticated; the bourgeoisie favoured more realistic artistic vehicles that were more emotionally accessible.

Inspiration

The Pre-Romantic artist, musician, or writer, is an “inspired creator” rather than a “technical master.” Meaning that, they were “going with the moment” or being

spontaneous, rather than “getting it precise.” Among many things that inspired the writers of this era is the writings of Jean-JAcques Rousseau, a Swiss philosopher who wrote once that people were born free but that everywhere civilization put them in chains. Also they were influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a German

writer whose novel The Sorrows of Young Werther provided the basis for much of this age.

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11800-1840, a partly reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature.

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Outstanding Figures

William Blake (1757-1821) For him, nature in its glorious state epitomized the state of innocence. It provided a clear vision of how life should be and showed the

way for children and adults to behave. Blooming nature, flowers, lambs and shepherds illustrate the Songs of Innocence. By contrast, the Songs of Experience are characterized by dark forests, sick flowers, and destroyed gardens.

Robert Burns (1759-17960), he is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic

movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland.

Horatio Walpole (1717-1797) the father of gothic novel, the novel of mystery and terror, The Castle of Ortanto, his most famous novel is set in the Middle Ages.

There is much paraphernalia of terror and villainy in it, but it was important for the development of the Pre-Romantic movement.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) an English author who made lasting contributions to English Literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor

and lexicographer.

Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) her fiction is characterized by seemingly supernatural events being explained through reason. Throughout her work traditional morals are asserted, women’s rights are advocated and reason

prevails.

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Characteristics of This Era

1. The exaltation of personal feelings and sensitivities.

๏The Neoclassical writers were concerned with the rational, social, and educational poetry whereas the Pre-Romantics fought against that

tendency and tried to express their feelings through poetry.

2. The vision of nature:

๏ the Pre-Romantic poets wrote about the poetic feelings that nature made them feel.

๏ In nature human beings van feel beauty, tenderness, and melancholy.

๏The Pre-Romantics despise the artificial life of the cities and they would rather retire to the country side.

๏Nature is a reflection of the feelings of the poet.

3. Moral and intellectual freedom:

๏The Neoclassical writers strictly followed the tradition. Their main characters do not express their dissatisfaction with society.

4. Melancholy:

๏Nature and its reflection produce melancholy feelings based on the ideas that life moves toward death, that happiness is unattainable, and love is unstable.

๏Melancholy reminds human beings that their life has an end.

5. The predilection for darkness and sepulchres:

๏It is a way to acquire more intimate feelings that shows the state of the soul.

๏This sort of literature goes back to the Middle Ages, and it is going to

portray sepulchres, abbeys, monks, and strange events.

6. To write with these new concepts in mind, writers needed to explore other ways of writing. Literature had to abandon its social projection and acquire a more intimate tone.

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Thomas Gray

His Early Life

Born in Cornhill on 26 December 1716, Gray was the fifth of twelve children of

Philip and Dorothy Antrobus Gray and the only one to survive infancy. He Also suffered from convulsions as a child. His mother in partnership with her sister Mary she kept a millinery,women’s hats, shop in Cornhill. This and the house connected with it were the property of Philip Gray, a money-scrivener, who married Dorothy in

1706 and lived with her in the house, the sisters renting the shop from him and supporting themselves by its profits. Philip Gray had impaired the fortune which he inherited from his father, a wealthy London merchant; yet he was sufficiently well-to-do, and at the close of his life was building a house upon some property of his

own at Wanstead. But he was selfish and brutal and given to fits of insanity, abused his wife. She left him at one point; but Philip Gray threatened to pursue her and wreak vengeance on her, and she returned to him.

From 1725 to 1734 Thomas Gray attended Eton, where he met Richard West

and Horace Walpole, son of the powerful Whig minister, Sir Robert Walpole. The four prided themselves on their sense of style, their sense of humour, and their appreciation of beauty. This little coterie was dubbed "the Quadruple Alliance." Gray was a delicate and scholarly boy who spent his time reading and avoiding

athletics. He recalled his schooldays as a time of great happiness, as is evident in his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.

In 1734 Gray entered Peterhouse College, Cambridge University. Four years

later he left Cambridge without a degree because he found the curriculum dull. He wrote letters to his friends listing all the things he disliked: the masters ("mad with Pride") and the Fellows ("sleepy, drunken, dull, illiterate Things.") Supposedly he was intended for the law, but in fact he spent his time as an undergraduate reading

classical and modern literature and playing on the harpsichord for relaxation. Then he and Horace Walpole sailed from Dover on 29 March 1739 for a Continental tour. The two quarreled at Reggio, Italy, in May 1741; Gray continued the tour alone, returning to London in September. In November 1741 Gray's father died;

Gray's extant letters contain no mention of this event.

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His Contribution

Thomas Gray is one of the best known of all English poets, and his poems are counted among the finest in the English language. But his literary output was small because he wrote slowly, striving for perfection.

Gray's poetry is concerned with the rejection of sexual desire. The figure of the poet in his poems is often a lonely, alienated, and marginal one, and various muses or surrogate-mother figures are invoked for aid or guidance. The typical "plot" of the four longer poems of 1742 has to do with engaging some figure of desire to repudiate it, as in the "Ode on the Spring," or, as in the Eton College ode, to lament lost innocence. Sometimes, as in the "Hymn to Adversity," a harsh and repressive figure is conjured to rebuke excessive desire and to aid in the formation of a modest and humane fellowship, the transposed and social form of sexual desire. In the "Hymn to Ignorance" a goddess clearly modeled on Pope's Dulness in The Dunciad (1728) is used to rebuke the "I" who longs for the maternal and demonic presence. In different but related ways these four poems enact the poet's quest for his tutelary spirit, for the muse who will preside over the making of poetic and personal identity.

Ode on the Spring previews Gray's appreciation in the "Elegy" of rustic simplicity against the claims of the proud and the great and reveal the inception of a poetic persona that will be adapted and modified during the coming years. The poem therefore offers a model for reading Gray's early poetry, in which the various rejections of desire are the major adventure of the speaker of the poems.

Gray’s surviving letters also show his sharp observation and playful sense of humour. He is also well known for his phrase, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." This is from his Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College This phrase is one of the most misunderstood phrases in English literature. Gray is not promoting ignorance, but reflecting nostalgically on a time when he was allowed to be ignorant, his youth.

Gray spent most of his life as a scholar in Cambridge, and only later in his life did he begin travelling again. Although he was one of the least productive poets (his collected works published during his lifetime amount to fewer than 1,000 lines), he is regarded as the foremost English-language poet of the mid-18th century. In 1757, he was offered the post of Poet Laureate, which he refused. In July 1768 Gray was made professor of modern history at Cambridge, though he never lectured or published on the subject. The most significant personal event of his last years was a brief, intense friendship with a young Swiss student, Karl Victor von Bonstetten. The friendship was apparently complicated by physical desire on Gray's part, though no sexual relation is believed to have occurred between them. In July 1771 Gray became ill while dining at Pembroke College; a week later, on 30 July, he died. In his Souvenirs (1832) Bonstetten reflected on the poet “I think the key to the mystery is that Gray never loved; the result was a poverty of heart contrasting with his ardent and profound imagination, which, instead of comprising the happiness of his life, was only its torment.”

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Gray’s Masterpiece: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

It is believed that Gray began writing his masterpiece, the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in the graveyard of the church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in 1742, completing it, after several years lying unfinished, in 1750. It was sent to his friend Horace Walpole, who popularized the poem among London literary circles. Gray was eventually forced to publish the work on 15 February 1751, to pre-empt a magazine publisher from printing an unlicensed copy of the poem. The poem was a literary sensation when published and has made a lasting contribution to English literature. It was partly inspired by Gray’s thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742. Originally titled Stanza's Wrote in a Country Church-Yard. Its reflective, calm and stoic tone was greatly admired, and it was pirated, imitated, quoted and translated into Latin and Greek. It is still one of the most popular and most frequently quoted poems in the English language. In 1759 during the Seven Years War, before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British General James Wolfe is said to have recited it to his officers, adding: "Gentlemen, I would rather have written that poem than take Quebec tomorrow." The Elegy was recognized immediately for its beauty and skill. It contains many phrases which have entered the common English lexicon, either on their own or as quoted in other works.

The poem is an elegy2 in name but not in form; it employs a style similar to that of contemporary odes, but it embodies a meditation on death, and remembrance after death. The poem argues that the remembrance can be good and bad, and the narrator finds comfort in pondering the lives of the obscure rustics buried in the churchyard. The two versions of the poem, Stanzas and Elegy, approach death differently; the first contains a stoic response to death, but the final version contains an epitaph which serves to repress the narrator's fear of dying. With its discussion of, and focus on, the obscure and the known, the poem has possible political ramifications, but it does not make any definite claims on politics to be more universal in its approach to life and death.

Later critics tended to praise its language and universal aspects, but some felt the ending was unconvincing, failing to resolve the questions the poem raised; or that the poem did not do enough to present a political statement that would serve to help the obscure rustic poor who forms its central image.

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2 A type poetry presenting melancholic reflection on morality, framed in narratives involving visits to graveyards and other reminders of death.

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The Background of the Poem

Gray's life was surrounded by loss and death, and many people that he knew died painfully and alone. In 1749, several events occurred that caused Gray stress. On 7 November, Mary Antrobus, Gray's aunt, died; her death devastated his family. The loss was compounded a few days later by news that his friend since childhood Horace Walpole was almost killed by two highwaymen. Although Walpole survived and later joked about the event, the incident disrupted Gray's ability to pursue his scholarship. The events dampened the mood that Christmas, and Antrobus's death was ever fresh in the minds of the Gray family. As a side effect, the events caused Gray to spend much of his time contemplating his own mortality. As he began to contemplate various aspects of mortality, he combined his desire to determine a view of order and progress present in the Classical world with aspects of his own life. With spring nearing, Gray questioned if his own life would enter into a sort of rebirth cycle or, should he die, if there would be anyone to remember him. Gray's meditations during spring 1750 turned to how individuals' reputations would survive. Eventually, Gray remembered some lines of poetry that he composed in 1742 following the death of West, a poet he knew. Using that previous material, he began to compose a poem that would serve as an answer to the various questions he was pondering.

On 3 June 1750, Gray moved to Stoke Poges, and on 12 June he completed Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Immediately, he included the poem in a letter he sent to Walpole, that said:

As I live in a place where even the ordinary tattle of the town arrives not till it is stale, and which produces no events of its own, you will not desire any excuse from me for writing so seldom, especially as of all people living I know you are the least a friend to letters spun out of one's own brains, with all the toil and constraint that accompanies sentimental productions. I have been here at Stoke a few days (where I shall continue good part of the summer); and having put an end to a thing, whose beginnings you have seen long ago. I immediately send it you. You will, I hope, look upon it in light of a thing with an end to it; a merit that most of my writing have wanted, and are like to want, but which this epistle I am determined shall not want.

The letter reveals that Gray felt that the poem was unimportant, and that he did not expect it to become as popular or influential as it did. Gray dismisses its positives as merely being that he was able to complete the poem, which was probably influenced by his experience of the churchyard at Stoke Poges, where he attended the Sunday service and was able to visit the grave of Antrobus.

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Graveyard Poetry A type poetry presenting melancholic reflection on morality, framed in narratives involving visits to graveyards and other reminders of death. One of the most celebrated examples of this type of verse is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. With its personal and introspective concerns, such verse has been seen as significant as part of a transitional phase between publicly focused neoclassical verse and Romantic lyricism, but it is of interest not only as a stepping-stone in literary history. Involving a focus upon loss, and with extensive analyses of feelings, such verse played a part in the wider culture of sensibility.

Meter and Rhyme SchemeGray wrote the poem in four-line stanzas (quatrains). Each line is in iambic pentameter, meaning the following:  1..Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of ten syllables.  2..In each pair, the first syllable is unstressed (or unaccented), and the second is stressed (or accented), as in the two lines that open the poem: .......The CUR few TOLLS the KNELL of PART ing DAY .......The LOW ing HERD wind SLOW ly O'ER the LEA .......In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the second line rhymes with the fourth (abab), as follows: a.....The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,  b.....The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, a.....The plowman homeward plods his weary way,  b.....And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Stanza Form: Heroic Quatrain .......A stanza with the above-mentioned characteristics—four lines, iambic pentameter, and an abab rhyme scheme—is often referred to as a heroic quatrain. (Quatrain is derived from the Latin word quattuor, meaning four.) William Shakespeare and John Dryden had earlier used this stanza form. After Gray's poem became famous, writers and critics also began referring to the heroic quatrain as an elegiac stanza.

The Tone The tone of the poem is sad and melancholic because it is the description of the death of common people. The speaker uses sad diction and symbols such as ''owl, death, grave, sleep'' also, the owl symbolizes death.

The setting

The time is the mid 1700s, about a decade before the Industrial Revolution began in England. The place is the cemetery of a church. Evidence indicates that the church is St. Giles, in the small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in

southern England. Gray himself is buried in that cemetery. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor house at Stoge Poges.

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Themes

Death: the Great Equalizer .......Even the proud and the mighty must one day lie beneath the earth, like the humble men and women now buried in the churchyard, as line 36 notes: The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Lines 41-44 further point out that no grandiose memorials and no flattering words about the deceased can bring him or her back from death. Can storied urn or animated bust  Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath? Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?

Missed Opportunities .......Because of poverty or other handicaps, many talented people never receive the opportunities they deserve. The following lines elucidate this theme through metaphors:  Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Here, the gem at the bottom of the ocean may represent an undiscovered musician, poet, scientist or philosopher. The flower may likewise stand for a person of great and noble qualities that are "wasted on the desert air." Of course, on another level, the gem and the flower can stand for anything in life that goes unappreciated.

Virtue .......In their rural setting, far from the temptations of the cities and the courts of kings, the villagers led virtuous lives, as lines 73-76 point out: Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,  Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray; Along the cool sequester'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

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Inversion .......For poetic effect, Gray frequently uses inversion (reversal of the normal word order). Following are examples: Line 6: And all the air a solemn stillness holds (all the air holds a solemn stillness) Line 14: Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap (Where the turf heaves) Line 24: Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. (Or climb his knees to share the envied kiss) Line 79: With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd (deck'd with uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture) Syncope Omitting letters or sounds within a word.  Gray also frequently uses a commonplace poetic device known as syncope, the omission of letters or sounds within a word.  The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea (line 2) Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight (line 5) Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r (line 9) The swallow twitt'ring  from the straw-built shed (line 18)

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Figures of Speech .......Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem.  Alliteration Repetition of a Consonant Sound The plowman homeward plods his weary way (line 3) .The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn (line 19) Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind? (line 88) . Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn (line 107) . Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love. (line 108)

Anaphora Repetition of a word, phrase, or clause at the beginning of word groups occurring one after the other And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave (line 34) Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse (line 81)  Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires. (lines 91-92)

Metaphor Comparison between unlike things without using like, as, or than Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. (lines 53-56) Comparison of the dead village people to gems and flowers Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. (lines 71-72) Comparison of flattering words to incense

Metonymy Use of a word or phrase to suggest a related word or phrase To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land Land stands for people.

Personification A form of metaphor that compares a thing to a person Let not Ambition mock their useful toil  Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor. (lines 29-32) Ambition and Grandeur take on human characteristics. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll (line 49-50) Notice that Knowledge becomes a person, a female. Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,  And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. (lines 119-120) Science and Melancholy become persons.

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Assessment of the Poem .......Scholars regard "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" as one of the greatest poems in the English language. It weaves structure, rhyme scheme, imagery and message into a brilliant tapestry that confers on Gray everlasting fame. The quality of its poetry and insights reach Shakespearean and Miltonian heights. 

Biographical Information .......Thomas Gray was born in London on December 26, 1716. He was the only one of twelve children who survived into adulthood. His father, Philip, a scrivener (a person who copies text) was a cruel, violent man, but his mother, Dorothy, believed in her son and operated a millinery business to educate him at Eton school in his childhood and Peterhouse College, Cambridge, as a young man.  .......He left the college in 1738 without a degree to tour Europe with his friend, Horace Walpole, the son of the first prime minister of England, Robert Walpole (1676-1745). However, Gray did earn a degree in law although he never practiced in that profession. After achieving recognition as a poet, he refused to give public lectures because he was extremely shy. Nevertheless, he gained such widespread acclaim and respect that England offered him the post of poet laureate, which would make him official poet of the realm. However, he rejected the honor. Gray was that rare kind of person who cared little for fame and adulation

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The Poem

1.3The curfew4 tolls the knell5 of parting day6,

2.The lowing7 herd wind slowly o'er8 the lea9,

3.The plowman homeward plods his weary way,

4.And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

5.Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,

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3 The poem begins in a churchyard with a narrator who is describing his surroundings in vivid detail. The narrator emphasises both aural and visual sensations as he examines the area in relation to himself. 1-12

4 ringing bell in the evening that reminded people in English towns of Gray’s time to put out fires and go to bed

5 mournful sound

6 day's end; dying day; twilight; dusk.

7 mooing.

8 contraction for over.

9 meadow

 the  poet  begins  the  poem  with  medita0ons  of  the  darkness  and  the  graves.  The  poet  starts  by  describing  the  disappearance  of  the  day   light  and  the  coming  of  the  darkness  in  the  graveyard  –  so  the  poet  starts  with   the  darkness  to   indicates  and  shows  his  great   sadness.   Then  he  remembers  the  daylight   and  the  happiness  which  disappears  by   the  death  of  the  pastoral  people  gray  praises  the  li;  of  those  people  who  are  simple  and  innocent  .  then  he  shi;s  to  visual  images  the  image  of  the  farmers  coming  back  home  –now  there  were  no  farmers  ,no  animals  and  the  image  becomes  darker  and  darker  ,  so  the  image  becomes  gloomy  and  melancholy  which  is  one  of  the  characteris0cs  of  the  elegy.  In  addi0on,  it  deals  with  personal  experience,  emo0on  and  feeling  s  which   is  a  characteris0c   of  the  pre  –   roman0c   school  the  elegy   of   a  country   church   yard  starts  with  a  personifica0on  gray   personifies  the  day   he  compares  it   to  someone  par0ng,  leaving  and  dying  the  church  bells  are  ringing  to  announce  his  death.  There  is  an  auditory  image  in  the  sound  of  the  church  bells.  They   are  knelling  and  ringing.  We  also  have  kine0c   image  which  is  herd  of  sheep  winding  and  moving  slowly.  We  also  have  melancholic  solitary  personal  tone  when  he  says  ''to  me''  this  is  one  of  the  characteris0c  of  the  pre  roman0c  school.  So  the  first  stanza,  is  considered  an  image  of  the  slow  movement  of  the  life.

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6.And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

7.Save10 where the beetle11 wheels12 his droning13 flight,

8.And drowsy tinklings14 lull the distant folds15;

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10 except

11 winged insect that occurs in more than 350,000 varieties. One type is the firefly, or lightning bug.

12 verb meaning flies in circles.

13 humming; buzzing; monotonous sound.

14 onomatopoeia.

15 Drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: This clause apparently refers to the gentle sounds made by a bell around the neck of a castrated male sheep that leads other sheep. A castrated male sheep is called a wether. Such a sheep with a bell around its neck is called a bellwether. Folds is a noun referring to flocks of sheep.

poet  con0nues  describing  the  light  of  the  landscape  a;er  the  departure  of  the  farmers  and  the  animals  .  so  we   have   solitude   landscape   and   lonely   filed   There   isn't   any   sound   except   the   beetle  and   their  wheeling.   The   sound   of   the   beetle   is   something   nega0ve   to   show   the   theme   of   death.   The   poet  expresses  his  feelings  of  sadness.  He  indicates  that  he  loves  loneliness  and  being  in  a  lonely  places.  The  poet  uses  visual  image  depending  on  the  sight  of  the  lights  which  are  about   to  disappear  and  become  dimmer  and  weaker   .another  image  related  to  death  to  death  is  the  sound  of  flying  beetle  at  night.  All  those  images  are  related  to  death  which  is  one  of  the  features  of  the  pre  roman0c  period.  There  is  a  metaphor  in  this  stanza  when  the  poet  compares  the  beetles  thinking  to  the  sound  of  the  mother  who  is  trying  to  tell  her   baby  to  sleep.  This  metaphor  suggests  s0llness.  The  poet  uses  the  leHer   ''L''  in  words  such   as   ''glimmering,   landscape,   solemn,   s0llness,   beetle,   wheels  and  many   others  to   indicates  the  lulling  mood.

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9.Save16 that from yonder17 ivy-mantled18 tow'r

10.The moping19 owl does to the moon complain

11.Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r20,

12.Molest21 her ancient solitary reign22.

13.Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

18

16 except

17 distant; remote.

18 cloaked, dressed, or adorned with ivy.

19 gloomy; grumbling.

20 bower, an enclosure surrounded by plant growth—in this case, ivy.

21 bother the owl while it keeps watch over the churchyard and countryside

22 Her ancient solitary rein: metaphor comparing the owl to a queen.

the  poet  presents  another  thing  that   is  in  the  scene.  He  no0ces  the  owl  which  is  a  symbol  of  death.  We  don’t  have  human  beings  other  than  the  poet.  We  have  an  owl  and  dead  people  in  the  graveyard.  The  owl  making  a  sound  complaining  to  the  moon  against  the  poet.  This  is  because  the  poet   is  wondering  in  the  churchyard  and  disturbing   it.   The  poet   uses  a  personifica0on  when  he  compares  the  moon  to  human  being  which  is  listening  to  complaint.   It   is  also  a  visual  image.   It   is  one  of  the  features  of  the  graveyard  school  which  is  found  in  the  pre  roman0c  movement.

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14.Where heaves the turf23 in many a mould'ring24 heap,

15.Each in his narrow cell25 for ever laid,

16.The rude26 forefathers of the hamlet27 sleep.

19

23 Where heaves the turf: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (the turf heaves).

24 mouldering (British), moldering (American), an adjective meaning decaying, crumbling.

25 metaphor comparing a grave to a prison cell.

26 robust; sturdy; hearty; stalwart.

27 village

the  poet  men0ons  the  word  ''grave''  for  the  first  0me.  He  starts  to  look  down  and  finds  the  graves  of  those  people  buried  there  forever.  So  he  starts  to  speak  about  the  simple  rus0c  people  who  are  buried  in  the  grave.  We  have  visual  images  have  in  describing  the  church  graves,  the  tombs  and  the  dead  farmers.  Then   the  poet   describes  the  grave  to   ''narrow  cell''   which  means  the  tombs.   He  also   uses  the  word  ''sleep''   it   is  a  significant   word   because   sleep  means  half   death.   The  poet   is  going   to   speak   about  death  .he  speaks  also  about   the  life  before  death  so  he  succeeds  in  using  the  word  sleep  to  show  the  idea  of  death.

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17.The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn28,

18.The swallow29 twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,

19.The cock's shrill clarion30, or the echoing horn31,

20.No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

20

28 Breezy call of incense-breathing Morn: wind carrying the pleasant smells of morning, including dewy grass and flowers. Notice that Morn is a metaphor comparing it to a living creature. (It calls and breathes.)

29 Insect-eating songbird that likes to perch.

30 cock-a-doodle-doo.

31 The words may refer to the sound made by a fox huntsman who blows a copper horn to which pack hounds respond. 

gray  compares  THE  TALENTS  OF  THE  POOR  TO  (GEM)  hidden  in  the  ocean  or  flowers  in  the  desert   .  the  poet  starts  to  remember   things  used  to  happen  in  the  past  when  those  dead  people  were  alive.  He  adds  that  those  will  never  bring  people  to  life  again.  He  uses  the  word  ''lowly  bed''  to  emphasizes  that  the  death  of  those  people  and  they  aren’t  going  to  awake  from  their  death.  The  poet  uses  onomatopic    words  such  as  ''  twiHering  of  the  swallow''  because  the  swallow  twiHers  early  in  the  morning  when  the  bird  sing.  now  they  are  dead  and  they  cant  hear  the  singing  of  the  birds  anymore.

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21.For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,

22.Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

23.No children run to lisp their sire's return,

24.Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share32.

25.Oft did the harvest to their sickle33 yield,

26.Their furrow34 oft the stubborn glebe35 has broke;

27.How jocund36 did they drive their team afield!

28.How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

29.Let not Ambition37 mock their useful toil,

30.Their homely joys, and destiny obscure38;39

31.Nor Grandeur40 hear with a disdainful smile

32.The short and simple annals41 of the poor.

21

32 Climb his knees the envied kiss to share: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (to share the envied kiss).

33 Harvesting tool with a handle and a crescent-shaped blade. Field hands swing it from right to left to cut down plant growth.

34 channel or groove made by a plow for planting seeds.

35 earth.

36 To maintain the meter, Gray uses an adjective when the syntax call for an adverb, jocundly. Jocund (pronounced JAHK und) means cheerful. 

37 Personification referring to the desire to succeed or to ambitious people seeking lofty goals.

38 the humble fate of the common people; their unheralded deeds.

39 Lines 29-30: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (let not Ambition obscure their destiny and homely joys).

40 personification referring to people with wealth, social standing, and power.

41 historical records; story.

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33.The boast of heraldry42, the pomp43 of pow'r,

34.And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er44 gave,

35.Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.

36.The paths of glory lead but to the grave45.

37.Nor you, ye proud, impute46 to these the fault,

38.If Mem'ry47 o'er their tomb no trophies raise,

39.Where thro'48 the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault

40.The pealing anthem49 swells the note of praise.

22

42 Proud talk about the aristocratic or noble roots of one's family; snobbery. Heraldry was a science that traced family lines of royal and noble personages and designed coats of arms for them.

43 ceremonies, rituals, and splendid surroundings of nobles and royals.

44 ever.

45 General meaning of stanza: Every person—no matter how important, powerful, or wealthy—ends up the same, dead. 

46 Assign, ascribe.

47 Memory, a personification referring to memorials, commemorations, and tributes—including statues, headstones, and epitaphs—used to preserve the memory of important or privileged people.

48 Where thro' . . . the note of praise: Reference to the interior of a church housing the tombs of important people. Fretted vault refers to a carved or ornamented arched roof or ceiling.

49 Pealing anthem may refer to lofty organ music.

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41.Can storied50 urn or animated bust51

42.Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath52?

43.Can Honour's53 voice provoke the silent dust,

44.Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death54?

45.Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid

46.Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire55;

47.Hands, that the rod of empire56 might have sway'd,

48.Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre57.

23

50 Storied urn: Vase adorned with pictures telling a story. Urns have sometimes been used to hold the ashes of a cremated body.

51 sculpture of the head, shoulders, and chest of a human.

52 Storied urn . . . breath? Can the soul (fleeting breath) be called back to the body (mansion) by the urn or bust back? Notice that urn and bust are personifications that call.

53 Can Honour's . . . Death? Can honor (Honour's voice) attributed to the dead person cause that person (silent dust) to come back to life? Can flattering words (Flatt'ry) about the dead person make death more "bearable"?

54 General meaning of stanza: Lines 41-45 continue the idea begun in Lines 37-40. In other words, can any memorials—such as the trophies mentioned in Line 38, the urn and bust mentioned in Line 41, and personifications (honor and flattery) mentioned in Lines 43 and 44—bring a person back to life or make death less final or fearsome?

55 Pregnant with celestial fire: Full of great ideas, abilities, or goals (celestial fire).

56 Rod of empire: scepter held by a king or an emperor during ceremonies. One of the humble country folk in the cemetery might have become a king or an emperor if he had been given the opportunity.

57 Wak'd . . .lyre: Played beautiful music on a lyre, a stringed instrument. In other words, one of the people in the cemetery could have become a great musician if given the opportunity, "waking up" the notes of the lyre .

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49.But Knowledge58 to their eyes her ample page

50.Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll59;

51.Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,

52.And froze the genial current of the soul60.

53.Full many a gem of purest ray serene,61

54.The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

55.Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,

56.And waste its sweetness on the desert air62.

24

58 Knowledge . . . unroll: Knowledge did not reveal itself to them (their eyes) in books (ample page) rich with treasures of information (spoils of time).

59 Knowledge . . . unroll: Personification and anastrophe a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (knowledge did ne'er enroll)

60 Chill . . . soul: Poverty (penury) repressed their enthusiasm (rage) and froze the flow (current) of ideas (soul). 

61 61 As the poem continues, the narrator begins to focus less on the countryside and more on his immediate surroundings. His descriptions begin to move from sensations to his own thoughts about the dead. As the poem changes, the narrator begins to emphasise what is not present in the scene, he contrasts an obscure country life with a life that is remembered. This contemplation provokes the narrator's thoughts on waste that comes in nature. 53-73

62 Full . . . air: These may be the most famous lines in the poem. Gray is comparing the humble village people to undiscovered gems in caves at the bottom of the ocean and to undiscovered flowers in the desert.

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57.Some village-Hampden63, that with dauntless breast

58.The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

59.Some mute inglorious Milton64 here may rest,

60.Some Cromwell65 guiltless of his country's blood.

61.Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,

62.The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

63.To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

64.And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes66,

65.Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone

66.Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;

67.Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,

68.And shut the gates of mercy on mankind67,

25

63 John Hampden (1594-1643) a Puritan member of Parliament, frequently criticized and opposed the policies of King Charles I. In particular, he opposed a tax imposed by the king to outfit the British navy. Because he believed that only Parliament could impose taxes, he refused to pay 20 shillings in ship money in 1635. Many joined him in his opposition. War broke out between those who supported Parliament and those who supported the king. Hampden was killed in battle in 1643. Gray here is presenting Hampden as a courageous (dauntless) hero who stood against the king (little tyrant)

64 John Milton (1608-1674), the great English poet and scholar.

65 Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), general and statesman; lord protector of England.

66 The subject and verb of Lines 61-64 are in the first three words of  Line 65, their lot forbade. Thus, this stanza says the villagers' way of life (lot) prohibited or prevented them from receiving applause from politicians for good deeds such as alleviating pain and suffering and providing plenty (perhaps food) across the land. These deeds would have been recorded by the appreciating nation.

67 General meaning: Their lot in life not only prevented (circumbscrib'd) them from doing good deeds (like those mentioned in Stanza 16) but also prevented (confin'd) bad deeds such as killing enemies to gain the throne and refusing to show mercy to people. 

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69.The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

70.To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,

71.Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

72.With incense kindled at the Muse's68 flame69.

73.Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,

74.Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;

75.Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

76.They kept the noiseless70 tenor of their way71.

77.Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect,

78.Some frail memorial still erected nigh,

79.With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,

80.Implores the passing tribute of a sigh72.

26

68 One of the nine Greek sister goddesses who inspired the arts.

69 General meaning: This stanza continues the idea begun in the previous stanza, saying that the villagers' lot in life also prevented them from hiding truth and shame and from bragging or using pretty or flattering words (incense kindled at the Muse's flame) to gain luxuries and feed their pride.

70 Noiseless tenor of their way: quiet way of life.

71 General meaning: The villagers plodded on faithfully, never straying from their lot in life as common people. (2) Madding: maddening; furious; frenzied.

72 General meaning: But even these people have gravestones (frail memorial), although they are engraved with simple and uneducated words or decked with humble sculpture. These gravestones elicit a sigh from people who see them.

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81.Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd muse73,

82.The place of fame and elegy supply74:

83.And many a holy text75 around she76 strews,

84.That teach the rustic moralist77 to die.

85.For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,

86.This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,

87.Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,

88.Nor cast one longing, ling'ring look behind78?

89.On some fond breast the parting soul relies,

90.Some pious drops the closing eye requires;

91.Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,

92.Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires79.

27

73 Unletter'd muse: Uneducated writer or engraver.

74 Their . . . supply: Their name and age appear but there are no lofty tributes.

75 probably Bible quotations.

76 muse. See the second note for Stanza 18.

77 pious villager

78 General meaning: These humble people, though they were doomed to be forgotten (to dumb Forgetfulness a prey), did not die (did not leave the warm precincts of cheerful day) without looking back with regret and perhaps a desire to linger a little longer .

79 General meaning: The dying person (parting soul) relies on a friend (fond breast) to supply the engraved words (pious drops) on a tombstone. Even from the tomb the spirit of a person cries out for remembrance.

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93.For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead80

94.Dost in these lines their artless tale relate81;

95.If chance, by lonely contemplation led,

96.Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate82,

97.Haply83 some hoary-headed swain84 may say,

98."Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn

99.Brushing with hasty steps the dews away

100.To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.

101."There at the foot of yonder nodding85 beech86

102.That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

103.His listless length87 at noontide would he stretch,

104.And pore upon88 the brook that babbles by.

28

80 80 The narrator focuses on the inequities that come from death, obscuring individuals, while he begins to resign himself to his own inevitable fate. As the poem ends, the narrator begins to deal with death in a direct manner as he discusses how humans desire to be remembered. As the narrator does so, the poem shifts and the first narrator is replaced by a second who describes the death of the first. 93-100

81 For thee . . . relate: Gray appears to be referring to himself. Mindful that the villagers deserve some sort of memorial, he is telling their story (their artless tale) in this elegy (these lines).

82 Lines 95-96: But what about Gray himself? What if someone asks about his fate? Gray provides the answer in the next stanza.

83 Perhaps; by chance; by accident

84 Hoary-headed swain: Gray-haired country fellow; old man who lives in the region. 

85 bending; bowing.

86 86 The poem concludes with a description of the poet's grave that the narrator is meditating over, together with a description of the end of that poet's life. 101-116

87 Listless length: his tired body.

88 Pore  upon:  Look  at;  watch.

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105."Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn89,

106.Mutt'ring his wayward fancies90 he would rove91,

107.Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,

108.Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

109."One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

110.Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;

111.Another came92; nor yet93 beside the rill94,

112.Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

113."The next95 with dirges96 due in sad array

114.Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.

115.Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay97,

116.Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."

29

89 Wood, now smiling as in scorn: personification comparing the forest to a person.

90 Wayward fancies: unpredictable, unexpected, or unwanted thoughts; capricious or flighty thoughts.

91 wander.92 another morning came.

93 Nor yet: But he still was not.

94 small stream or brook

95 the next morning.

96 funeral songs.

97 short poem—in this case, the epitaph below

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THE EPITAPH98

117.Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

118.A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

119.Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,

120.And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

121.Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

122.Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:

123.He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,

124.He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

125.No farther seek his merits to disclose,

126.Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

127.(There they alike in trembling hope repose)

128.The bosom of his Father and his God99.

30

98 An epitaph is included after the conclusion of the poem. The epitaph reveals that the poet whose grave is the focus of the poem was unknown and obscure. The poet was separated from the other common people because he was unable to join with the common affairs of life, and circumstance kept him from becoming something greater. 117-128

99 General meaning: Here lies a man of humble birth who did not know fortune or fame but who did become a scholar. Although he was depressed at times, he had a good life, was sensitive to the needs of others, and followed God's laws. Don't try to find out more about his good points or bad points, which are now with him in heaven. 117-128