Essay 1: Poetic Analysis of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
Through the text and structure of Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” he argues that everybody deserves to be remembered when they are gone, even poor, no-name, average people. In doing so, Gray also reflects on his own mortality, and leaves behind something more than just a monument of stone. He leaves behind a plea to remember those who would otherwise go unremembered embedded in his own remembrance for them. He also leaves behind a modest desired epitaph for himself—a modest man who made a name for himself. Ultimately though, Gray argues for egalitarian treatment of the dead regardless of status. Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is set …show more content…
The speaker puts down the “boast of heraldry,” the “pomp of pow’r,” and “wealth,” because those paths “lead but to the grave. As the cliché goes, ‘you can’t take it with you.’ Gray is highlighting death as the great equalizer; a hopeful request for one egalitarian measure to be implemented—treatment of the dead. “Ye proud” in the next stanza should not blame the poor dead for a lack of “trophies,” the speaker blaming “Mem’ry” for the farmers depravity. The speaker uses rhetorical questions in stanza seven to ask if the glorified “urn” or “bust” resuscitates the dead or if “Honour” and “Flattery” can “soothe” the pain of “Death.” Who exactly might be buried in the churchyard? Perhaps people whose hearts were “pregnant with a celestial fire,” passionate “empire” rulers, and great “lyre” players (Stanza 12). The pages of “Knowledge” were never “unrolled” to these poor, “Penury” holding them back—their “noble rage.” A beautiful metaphor is employed with poverty freezing the “genial current of the soul” (13:52). The hidden “gem” and the “unseen” “flow’r” are also metaphors for the poor people who never get their day to shine, or their “trophies” referenced earlier (Stanza 14). Their “penury” keeps them from being known, making history books, and even confines them from committing “crime” (17:66). Their talents are never consummated before the “Muse” …show more content…
The “unlett’rd muse” writes inscriptions on the poors’ graves in place of quality elegies, adding the “holy text” periodically so that they think about death and prepared when their time to die comes. Being forgotten after death is like being the “prey” hunted down by “Forgetfulness,” another metaphor that helps the reader comprehend the severity of the countrymen’s graveyard (Stanza 22). Everyone “relies” on “some fond” person to close the “eyes” of the dead—it’s the personified “voice of Nature”—it is natural (Stanza 23). In the next two stanzas, the speaker pontificates his awareness of the un-honored death and is memorializing them in “these lines” (Stanza 24). He asks what would a “hoardy-headed” poor person remark about the speaker, in reference to his mortality and answers his question in the next few stanzas (Stanza
Through the text and structure of Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” he argues that everybody deserves to be remembered when they are gone, even poor, no-name, average people. In doing so, Gray also reflects on his own mortality, and leaves behind something more than just a monument of stone. He leaves behind a plea to remember those who would otherwise go unremembered embedded in his own remembrance for them. He also leaves behind a modest desired epitaph for himself—a modest man who made a name for himself. Ultimately though, Gray argues for egalitarian treatment of the dead regardless of status. Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is set …show more content…
The speaker puts down the “boast of heraldry,” the “pomp of pow’r,” and “wealth,” because those paths “lead but to the grave. As the cliché goes, ‘you can’t take it with you.’ Gray is highlighting death as the great equalizer; a hopeful request for one egalitarian measure to be implemented—treatment of the dead. “Ye proud” in the next stanza should not blame the poor dead for a lack of “trophies,” the speaker blaming “Mem’ry” for the farmers depravity. The speaker uses rhetorical questions in stanza seven to ask if the glorified “urn” or “bust” resuscitates the dead or if “Honour” and “Flattery” can “soothe” the pain of “Death.” Who exactly might be buried in the churchyard? Perhaps people whose hearts were “pregnant with a celestial fire,” passionate “empire” rulers, and great “lyre” players (Stanza 12). The pages of “Knowledge” were never “unrolled” to these poor, “Penury” holding them back—their “noble rage.” A beautiful metaphor is employed with poverty freezing the “genial current of the soul” (13:52). The hidden “gem” and the “unseen” “flow’r” are also metaphors for the poor people who never get their day to shine, or their “trophies” referenced earlier (Stanza 14). Their “penury” keeps them from being known, making history books, and even confines them from committing “crime” (17:66). Their talents are never consummated before the “Muse” …show more content…
The “unlett’rd muse” writes inscriptions on the poors’ graves in place of quality elegies, adding the “holy text” periodically so that they think about death and prepared when their time to die comes. Being forgotten after death is like being the “prey” hunted down by “Forgetfulness,” another metaphor that helps the reader comprehend the severity of the countrymen’s graveyard (Stanza 22). Everyone “relies” on “some fond” person to close the “eyes” of the dead—it’s the personified “voice of Nature”—it is natural (Stanza 23). In the next two stanzas, the speaker pontificates his awareness of the un-honored death and is memorializing them in “these lines” (Stanza 24). He asks what would a “hoardy-headed” poor person remark about the speaker, in reference to his mortality and answers his question in the next few stanzas (Stanza