"Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard" By Thomas Gray - Elegy

Elegies are written in honor of the dead and Gray's poem is no different. It follow the elegies elegant, somber mood that praises but laments for those who have passed away. The poem is in four line stanzas with iambic pentameter which means in each line consists of ten syllables and only the even ones are stressed while the odd ones remain unstressed. The lines also rhythm with each other in a ABAB CDCD… fashion. The poem also fits the parameters of an elegiac stanza which apparently only became used after Gray's poem.

The poem expresses the speaker's feelings for death and how special life can be. Life is short and even "glory lead but to the grave." Sometimes, people don't even get a chance to express themselves due to unfortunate circumstances. Their blooming "flow'r" can only "wastes its sweetness on the desert air."

Gray's first few stanzas helps set the scene of the Church-yard. The world goes to sleep and everything quiets down at night. In the church-yard, he describes the "rude forefathers of the hamlet" in deep slumber. It further describes the night by contrasting it against the day. "No more" shall "the breezy call of incense-breathing Morn" wake the rude forefathers because it is night. Morn here is personified, giving significance to the times of day. The next few stanzas go on to describe what these beings miss from the world. They'll never harvest again or see their wives because they are dead. Lines 29-36 compares and contrasts the poor and the rich. However, despite being poor or rich, all people still die. Even the "paths to glory lead but to the grave."

The next few stanzas talk about lost opportunity. The speaker wonders in someone buried in this graveyard could've been a king or was once "pregnant with celestial fire (Ambition, Ideas)." These people are then compared to the gems in an underwater cave or the flowers in a desert. A rare occurrence in a vast landscape of nothingness where no one dwells. These gems and flowers would waste their time and wither and disappear. Gray also brings in some historical characters in his next stanza. Milton (A fellow poet) and Cromwell are both brought up. Cromwell seems to be brought up in kinder terms. Apparently he was no responsible for the bloodshed of the English Civil War.

Gray continues talking about the plight of the poor and how because of their situation, was never given the chance to become great. Instead, they "kept the noiseless tenor of their way." Their lives would remain monotonous and boring as long as they continued. Gray then switches topics by talking about the simple graves that mark the scene and how those individuals must've looked back on their lives with a "ling'ring" sigh.

 

 

Link to the Poem
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