Page 259 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes 25.3 Thomas Gray: The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

Discussion and Analysis

The elegy is the most natural form of poetry because of its disassociation with metrical form, and
lack of requirement of pattern, cadence or repetition. Within the elegy, Strand and Boland point out
how the poet is permitted to express loss, mourn for the dead, and list the deceased person’s virtues,
while seeking consolations beyond the momentary event.
The elegy is the most natural form of poetry because it heeds to customs and is guided by laws and
codes, which are part of the history and tradition of the society in which the poem has evolved. The
works of Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” demonstrate how the elegy is
written in a natural form because of the forces guiding this type of poetic writing.
Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem clearly demonstrating the
history and tradition of the society. Roberts and Jacobs express how religious, personal, political,
and philosophical thought can become integrated into poetry. To begin with, these settings-religious,
personal, political, and philosophical thought-become evident clearly by Gray who is able to write
freely within his Elegy.

Gray is able to express how all must die, and it does not matter if one is rich or
poor, noble or a commoner, or a poet or a politician. Gray is also able to elevate
the common man with the use of the elegy and freedom of wording and poetic
style.

Gray gives clues within the first four stanzas of death by writing about the approaching night.
Stanza one states, “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. The Ploughman homeward plods and
leaves the world to darkness and to me.” Stanza two reads, “Now fades the glimmering landscape
and drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds,” which are more clues to the approaching darkness.

Define the term Elegy.
Then in stanza four Gray writes, “Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower/the moping owl does
to the moon complain,” which demonstrates the night approaching because owls come out into the
darkness, and also signifying the wealthy people because of the ivy-mantled tower. Then within
stanza four, Gray continues, “Each in his narrow cell for ever laid/The rude forefathers of the hamlet
sleep.”
This undoubtedly and naturally demonstrates the death of the forefathers and the men being put to
rest within their tombs. Also, the use of the term forefathers gives clues that these men were of
various backgrounds-farmers, politicians, fathers, rich, and poor.
Thomas Gray (1716–1771) was born in London and studied at Eton and Cambridge. With such a
scanty production, Gray holds a key position in the history of English poetry. It is universally believed
that Thomas Gray is well popular because of ‘Elegy.’ The composition began after the death of a
very close associate of him, his school friend West.
It is about a simple unnamed village people who lie buried in a quiet churchyard, in the village of
Stoke Poges. Gray sums up his entire experience of life in this poem- the melancholy, the boredom,
the obscurity and lack of achievement, as yet presents itself in a what which seems tolerable and
appreciable too. In this poem, you will find a complete set of expressions of his personal life, his
despairs and frustrations.

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