Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by
Thomas Gray
, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem’s origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray’s thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742.
How does Gray describe country life in his elegy?
How does Gray describe country life in his elegy? In his poem, Gray
suggests that country folk be remembered and appreciated
. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was among the first poems to provide a realistic portrayal of the countryside.
What is GREY style in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
Style. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is written in
heroic quatrains
. A quatrain is a four-line stanza. Heroic quatrains rhyme in an abab pattern and are written in iambic pentameter.
Who is the speaker referring to in these lines from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
The speaker is
the poet himself, Thomas Gray
. He is memoralizing the lives of the gone and otherwise forgotten villagers.
How does Gray describe the rustics in the graves?
Gray uses the character of a villager to describe his speaker’s behavior and death as the village poet. The epitaph on his tombstone describes his essential characteristic—that he was
“mark’d” by melancholy
and that he was, like the other villagers, “a youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.”
What is the main message of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
The main message of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is
that death renders all humans equal, no matter their respective roles in life
. As the speaker muses on the ordinary folk buried in the eponymous churchyard, he reflects that they now occupy the same status as the great figures who overshadowed them in life.
How is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard different from other elegies?
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. … The poem is an elegy 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.
What tribute does Gray offer to the rustics?
Thomas Gray’s speaker is offering a tribute to
the simple folk who tended the land in this beautiful
scene of country landscape. The speaker is musing upon the life and death of these rustic, simple folk in the pastoral, rustic setting.
What time of day is it when the poem Elegy Written in the country churchyard begins?
The first line of “Elegy Written in a Church Courtyard” indicates that it is
evening
. This is when the curfew tolls the bell (knell) of the parting (sunset) day.
How does Gray describe himself in his own epitaph?
“Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere”
was how the man lived, and although his soul was a true one, he was still a marked man, and now he is only marked with a stone that protrudes from the ground known as The Epitaph. God is a part of life that Gray dispises.
Where is the speaker in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
The speaker of the poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a young man who
is walking through the churchyard
. At one point in the poem, he speculates what a “hoary-headed swain” might say about his walks through the courtyard. Why does the speaker speculate about what this old man might say about him?
What is the speaker doing in the opening lines of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
What is the speaker doing in the opening lines of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?
All lives, no matter how great or how insignificant, end in death.
What is the meaning of Line 36 in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
The meaning of line 36 in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is that
death is an equalizing force, bringing the same final destiny to the powerful and the poor alike
. In this way, all people are equal, as even “Paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
Why does Thomas Gray mourn over the deaths of his villagers?
In the final lines,
Gray contemplates the possibility of his own death
, and thus ends with the implication that in mourning for the people buried in the country graveyard, he is also mourning for the death that awaits both himself and his readers.
How does Gray deal with death and decay in the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray’s attitude toward death at first is
that everyone faces the same end
, regardless of their social standing or sense of importance: The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Why did Gray write elegy for the common person?
An elegy is a poem written
to mourn a person’s death
. Gray wrote this elegy in the year 1742. However, he published it only in the year 1751. He wrote this poem after the death of his friend Richard West.
