What is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard summary?
An elegy is a poem which laments the dead. Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is noteworthy in that it mourns the death not of great or famous people, but of common men. The speaker of this poem sees a country churchyard at sunset, which impels him to meditate on the nature of human mortality.
What kind of poetry is Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
meditative poem
An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard, meditative poem written in iambic pentameter quatrains by Thomas Gray, published in 1751. A meditation on unused human potential, the conditions of country life, and mortality, An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard is one of the best-known elegies in the language.
What was the theme behind Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
The main themes in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” are the universality of death, social class and value, and poetry and posterity. The universality of death: Gray’s poem depicts death as a leveling force that brings all people, whether rich or poor, to the same final fate.
Why did Thomas Gray wrote Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
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.
Why is the speaker in a churchyard?
The speaker in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” may be a version of the poet Thomas Gray, given that the poem’s musings have a particular poetic character. At the same time, the overriding message of the poem is universal, and so the speaker’s position can represent anyone in sympathy with the poem’s theme.
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 are Gray’s thoughts on seeing the country churchyard?
He thinks how they will miss the simple things in life: “the breezy call of incense-breathing Morn,” birds singing, the hunter’s horn, the warmth of the fireplace, the company of the family’s children.
Where was Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard written?
Stoke Poges
Originally titled Stanzas Wrote in a Country Church-Yard, the poem was completed when Gray was living near St Giles’ parish church at Stoke Poges. It was sent to his friend Horace Walpole, who popularised the poem among London literary circles.
