Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

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Recommended: Elegy written in a country churchyard as a pastoral elegy

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant. In the poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Gray is symbolizing death using the method of dubbal entendre. In the opening stanza Gray states, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, / The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, / The plowman homeward plods his weary way, / And leaves the world to darkness and to me” (1-4). The speaker is literally observing his surroundings as the day comes to an end, noticing the cows slowly moving to the other side of the mountaintop and a tired plowman making his way home leaving him to contemplate in the darkness. However, the underlying connotation in the first stanza is death which Gray symbolizes with the use of the word “knell”. Knelling is the ringing of a bell at a funeral; therefore, the reader can infer in the first line when Gray states, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day” (1) is about it bein... ... middle of paper ... ...y were and the lives they lived. He wants to recognize those who would otherwise be insignificant compared to someone of stature. Gray closes out the elegy by speaking of his own death and how his life compares to that of the commoners. He was neither famous nor wealthy and had lived a life of sorrow and misery. In conclusion, Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” uses symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant to those of greater statures. Works Cited Gray, Thomas. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” Masters of British Literature, vol. A. Ed. David Damrosch and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.

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