THE ELEGY

WRITTEN IN A
COUNTRY
CHURCHYARD
Thomas Gray
 Born: December 26 , 1716
 Birthplace:

 Died: July 30 , 1771

 Location of
death: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire,
England
 Remains: Buried, St. Giles
Churchyard, Stoke
Poges, Buckinghamshire, England
 Religion: Deist
 Sexual orientation: Gay
 Early life

 fifth
of 12 children
the only child of Philip and
Dorothy Gray to survive
infancy.
He lived with his mother
after she left his abusive
father.
 Education
 educated at Eton College where his uncle was
one of the masters.
 a delicate and scholarly boy who spent his
time reading and avoiding athletics
 three close friends at Eton: Horace
Walpole, son of the Prime Minister Robert
Walpole; Thomas Ashton, and Richard West
 1734 , went to Peterhouse,Cambridge
 Left without a degree
 Receipt of legacy from his paternal aunt meant
that he had no urgent need to find a job
 Poetry
 1745 (29) his friendship with Walpole
was renewed
 Walpole admired his poetry and
persuaded him to publish
 1747 (31) – Ode on a Distant Prospect of
Eton College, Ode on Spring , Ode on
the Death of a Favourite Cat , Drowned
in a Tub of Goldfishes
 His ELEGY ON A COUNTRY CURCHYARD
TOOK HIM 9 YEARS BEFORE IT WAS
PUBLISHED. FROM 1742 (26)- 1751 (35)
 1757 – The Bard and the Progress of
Poesy
 Norton Nicholls – his love interest . An
undergraudate wose knowledge of
Dante impressed him.
 1751- Journey among te English Lakes
 1768 (52) – Fatal Sisters, The Descent of
Odin and The Triumphs of Owen
 Last Years
• 1751 – He proposed to visit
Bonstetten in Switzerland during
the summer but was struck by a
sudden illness and died after a
few days
• He was buried in St. Giles
churchyard in Stoke Poges nect
to his mother
 About the Poem
 128 line poem
 It is about the subject of human mortality
 The speaker urges the reader to remember
him for his human frailty , that he is indeed
common with everyman
 poem invokes the classical idea of memento
mori, a Latin phrase which states plainly to all
mankind, "Remember that you must die.―
 in death, there is no difference between great
and common people.
 it idealizes and elevates the common man.
 Summary
 Itwas an evening time. The poet is standing in
the church yard. The ringing of a curfew bell is
heard. A herd of cattle from pasture started
returning home. Farm workers, after hard
work, started going homes, indicating that the
activities of day time are drawing to a close.
The poet is then left alone to contemplate the
isolated rural scene. The poet sets a
melancholy atmosphere by describing the
ringing of curfew bell in somber tone. The
curfew bell does not simply ring; it "knells"—a
term usually applied to bells rang at a death or
funeral. From the very beginning, Gray reminds
us of human mortality.
 There is a tone of sincere melancholy throughout. He
started composing the verses of this poem by bringing
before his mind`s eyes the Churchyard at Stock-Poges.
The poem begins with the description of the Church
Yard at Stock-Poges towards sunset. He alone stands
by the side of the graveyards. The curfew or the
evening bell warning the people to retire to rest has
tolled. The farmer is returning home after his day`s
work. It is dark all around and the air itself is silent in a
solemn manner without any breeze. The cattle are
going homeward and none is to be seen except the
poet standing by the side off the graveyards. The whole
atmosphere is serene. Nothing is heard except the
hooting of the owl and the drowning sound of the
beetle and tinkling of the bells of the herd in distant
folds in the village.
Even those noises are
feeble, showing that the beetle
and Cattle are tired. There is
indeed one sound which is not
―drowsy‖. The sound of an owl
hooting intrudes upon the
evening quiet .The hooting of the
moping Owl appears that it
complains to the moon that the
poet is trying to destroy her
ancient solitary reign.
The hooting of Owl adds to the
gloom, since it appears to be
complaining about persons that go
near her lonely living place. There is
no companion for the poet at that
time except darkness. In such an
atmosphere, the poet is found by
himself by the side of the church
yard. The melancholy atmosphere is
suited to the poem.
 Theme
Itmourns the death not of great
people but of common men and
meditates on the nature of human
mortality. That in death there is no
difference between great and
common people if among the lowly
people buried in the churchyard
there had been any natural poets
or politicians whose talent had
simply never been discovered or
nurtured
 Elements
classical elements
 use of alternately quatrains of iambic
pentameters already present in Dryden
 use of abstract personifications
(ambition, grandeur etc.)
 universality of themes
(death, obscurity, contentment, etc.)
 idyllic view of country life
 excessive time required to polish each
stanza, thus excluding immediacy of
inspiration
 clear influence of poetic classics such as
Dante (opening lines); Lucrezius (stanza 6);
Petrarch(ending)
Graveyard Poetry
A type poetry presenting melancholic reflection
on morality, framed innarratives involving visits to
graveyards and other reminders of death. One of
themost celebrated examples of this type of
verse is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in aCountry
Churchyard. With its personal and introspective
concerns, such verse hasbeen seen as significant
as part of a transitional phase between publicly
focusedneoclassical 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 offeelings, 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 iambicpentameter

 Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of
ten syllables
 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 SLOWly OER
the LEA .......In each stanza, the first line rhymes
with the third and the second line rhymes with
the fourth (abab), as follows
 The speaker uses sad diction and symbols
such asowl, death, grave, sleep also, the owl
symbolizes death. The setting The time is the
mid 1700s, about a decade before the
Industrial Revolutionbegan in England. The
place is the cemetery of a church. Evidence
indicates thatthe church is St. Giles, in the
small town of Stoke
Poges, Buckinghamshire, insouthern England.
Gray himself is buried in that cemetery.
William Penn, thefounder of
Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor
house at Stoge Poges.
 Figures of Speech

Alliteration Repetition
 Plowman homeward plods his weary way
(line 3)
 The cocks shrill clarion, or the echoing
horn (line 19)
 Nor cast one longing, lingring look
behind? (line 88)
 Now drooping, woeful wan, like one
forlorn (line 107)
 Or crazd with care, or crossd in hopeless
love. (line 108)
Metaphor
 Fullmany a gem of purest ray serene,The
dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear .
Full many a flowr 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
flowersOr heap the shrine of Luxury and
PrideWith incense kindled at the Muses
flame.
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
 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 neer
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)