Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is significant in that it not only mourns the death of common men but also examines how they ought to be remembered after their death. The speaker does not create a separation between rich and poor but regards everyone as equal. His main goal is to depict the reality that everyone must die. This poem carries a moralistic side about human life. Gray points out that the rich and proud should not mock at the simple life of the poor when in reality they are just like them in that, they also have to die and leave all their wealth and luxuries behind. This poem is not boring and offensive but rather inspiring and motivating.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” consists of a hundred and twenty eight lines separated into thirty two quatrains including an epitaph. Each of these quatrains is effectively composed, precise and to the point. The transition of words and thoughts from each stanza takes place in a smooth and organized fashion. The language and expressions are simple and without anything excessive and exaggerated. There is grace and meaning as he goes on in the stanzas. Lines 1-12 of the poem start in a churchyard with the speaker who is depicting his surroundings in detail. The speaker highlights both aural and visual descriptions as he observes the area relating to himself. For example, ‘curfew tolls’, ‘lowing herd’, ‘glimm’ring landscape’, ‘solemn stillness’, ‘drowsy tinklings’, ‘moping owl’ show the aural and visual descriptions The speaker uses to describe his surroundings. The speaker gives readers a sense of the solitary and still environment he is currently in. Lines 13 to 28 is where the speaker begins to reflect that the death for the lower class meant an end to ...
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...ortray. He gives a perfect expression to his feelings and thoughts. He has also generalized his personal views and reflections. Not only do the reflections on life and death make this poem inspirational but more important the progression he gave those thoughts. This poem contains distinctive lines that make you look at what he is trying to say from a different angle. Gray wants his readers to know that it is important for one to live life with humility and dignity whether rich or poor because in the end, it is important to have at least one person to remember you for the life you lived. In the end, that is what matters not social class or status.
Work Cited
Gray, Thomas. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors. 9th Ed. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 1396 - 1400. Print.
My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.
Overall, dwell on this process of changing throughout the poem, it can be understood that the poet is demonstrating a particular attitude towards life. Everyone declines and dies eventually, but it would be better to embrace an optimistic, opened mind than a pessimistic, giving-up attitude; face the approach of death unflinchingly, calmly.
Millay’s poem “Thou famished grave” explores death’s inevitable success and the speaker’s resistance against it to gain victory within loss. The first way Millay achieves this is through the animalization of death. The poem describes death throughout with words such as, “roar” (2) and “jaws” (7), which leads to a portrayal of death as a predatory animal. A further description in the poem of the speaker as “prey” (9), helps to strengthen this portrayal. As a result, this animalistic depiction of predator and prey shows death’s advantage and dominance over life. In addition, it shows that the speaker is like a gazelle being hunted by a lion. They will not stand motionless and be defeated, but will run away to survive death and “aim not to be
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An elegy is typically a way to honor a person who passes away, although the author of this poem uses this form of expression as an appreciation for his father who is still alive. In this poem, although the father is not dead, the narrator dreads the moment when death will permanently separate them. Hudgins
Even from the first paragraph, Hurst's use of vocabulary evokes an emotional response to the story line. His word choice as the narrator describes his surrounding and hints to a fatal event that awaits the reader's attention. Hurst uses words and phrases such as “dead autumn,” “rotting brown magnolia,” “graveyard flowers.” The last sentence, “...speaking softly the names of our dead” adds one final melancholy statement (91). The imagery throughout the paragraph helps to imagine an eerie swamp land surrounded by death and depressing memories. This melancholy setting foresha...
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The interpretations of what comes after death may vary greatly across literature, but one component remains constant: there will always be movement. In her collection Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey discusses the significance, permanence and meaning of death often. The topic is intimate and personal in her life, and inescapable in the general human experience. Part I of Native Guard hosts many of the most personal poems in the collection, and those very closely related to the death of Trethewey’s mother, and the exit of her mother’s presence from her life. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance
While Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" overtly deals with the distinction between social class and the opportunity for greatness, the poem also contains a subtle yet strong message against the dominant role of men over women in society. Gray's tone throughout the poem is permeated with regret and a sense of something lost, voicing his opinions clearly against social class prejudice. This emotional tone, when applied to the stereotypical roles of differing sexes discussed throughout the poem, portrays the injustice of inequality between males and females.
Owen presents us a sarcastic view towards the idea of being honorable to sacrifice for their country and buttresses it with abundant of horrific images. It is a war sonnet that captures the feelings of survivors to those who lost their lives in war. The use of a sonnet creates a sense of intensity in his poem, briefness and portrays the nature of death on a battlefield. Moreover, Owen uses the rhyme scheme of “ababcdcdeffegg” to show the strong division between the lines. The choice of a sonnet allows Owen to convey his message effectively and remain emotional to keep the readers interested. His tone in the poem is gloomy and proposes the reader to consider the question at the beginning of the poem: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle” (1). Their deaths are significant to those of cattle and it occurs in masses. This leads the reader to consider t...
During the early seventeenth century, poets were able to mourn the loss of a child publicly by writing elegies, or poems to lament the deceased. Katherine Philips and Ben Jonson were two poets who wrote the popular poems “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”, “On My First Son”, and “On My First Daughter” respectively. Although Philips and Jonson’s elegies contain obvious similarities, the differences between “On the Death of My Dearest Child” and “On My First Son” specifically are pronounced. The emotions displayed in the elegies are very distinct when considering the sex of the poet. The grief shown by a mother and father is a major theme when comparing the approach of mourning in the two elegies.
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Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.
“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.