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Manicdao,Margarette Nicole N. iii-Curie
Biography : Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray was an English poet in Cambridge University
He began seriously writing poems in 1742, mainly after his close friend Richard West died. He moved to Cambridge and began a self-imposed programme of literary study, becoming one of the most learned men of his time, though he claimed to be lazy by inclination. He became a Fellow, and later of Pembroke College, Cambridge. It is said that the change of college was the result of a practical joke. Terrified of fire, he had installed a metal bar by his window on the top floor of the Burrough’s building at Peterhouse, so that in the event of a fire he could tie his sheets to it and climb to safety. One night undergraduates decided to play a prank and shouted “fire”. Gray climbed down from his window, landing in a barrel of water placed beneath.
Gray spent most of his life as a scholar in Cambridge, and only later in his life did he begin travelling again. Although he was one of the least productive poets (his collected works published during his lifetime amount to fewer than 1,000 lines), he is regarded as the predominant poetic figure of the mid-18th century. In 1757, he was offered the post of Poet Laureate, which he refused. In 1768, he succeeded Lawrence Brockett as Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, a sinecure
Gray was so self critical and fearful of failure that he only published 13 poems during his lifetime, and once wrote that he feared his collected works would be "mistaken for the works of a flea." Walpole said that "He never wrote anything easily but things of Humour."
Analysis of Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
In the first stanza, the speaker hears the curfew bell ringing and sees a herd of cows entering the meadow. the plowman walks lazily because he is tired from a hard day. and the speaker is left alone in the darkness. In this stanza, I think that the curfew bell is the command of the plowman to the cows and the plowman became weary and tired of his own work. I consider the plowman as a normal person doing all of his work in a continual manner. The plowman is tired of being monotonous and doing all of his task like a robot.
In the second stanza, the speaker observes the beauty of the dusk of the country side. With still air holds the shimmering beauty of the countryside. And beetles start to come home where everything is sleepy and far. In this stanza, it says beetles come home just like humans. During dusk living organisms start to come to their own habitats. It says that humans should be home before sundown and it should be the time of rest.
In the third stanza, It talks about an owl possessing grace and beauty with the light of the moon. The owl stays at its ivy tree. Behind all of the beauty and grace of the said animal, the owl sings mournfully and sings for sadness due to his solitude. In this stanza, the owl for me is like a rich person. No matter how rich you are you can still be sad behind all the money and power you posses. The ivy-mantled tow'r for me is the symbol for the owl's greatness.
In the fourth stanza, it presents 2 graves near 2 trees which shades them where 2 bodies lay forever sleeping. In this stanza shows an allusion with "Hamlet sleep", from Hamlet's famous soliloquy which reveals his thoughts of suicide. He has learned his uncle killed his father, the late king, and married the king's wife, his mother. This foul deed has driven Hamlet mad, he seeks both revenge and the escape of death. So in this stanza it says that the 2 graves are of 2 tortured men.
In the fifth stanza, it says that no matter how noisy the chickens in the straw-built shed in the morning are. The forefathers will not wake anymore. Just like in the tragedy of Dr Faustus, Dr. Faustus will never have a break from the wrath of Mephistopheles in which Faustus wishes for one day of salvation after a thousand years in hell. Only the forefathers will never wake anymore from the dead.
In the sixth stanza, It says that no one is expecting their return anymore. They do not enjoy the pleasure the comforts of home, the love of his wife with care, and the happiness his children give him. It feels so lonely to be in the grave I now realize. I feel the emptiness of a dead person by this stanza.
In the seventh stanza, It also says that they do not enjoy the pleasures of work like the happiness of seeing harvest time and plowing the land.
In the eight stanza, it say that do not let ambition challenge their hard work. They know in their hearts that they are happy and contended with what they have and one thing about them is their personalities are not to be stepped on even if they will never be famous or have history books written about them.
In the ninth stanza, it shows that despite of power, beauty and wealth everyone must face their inevitable hour or everyone will face death no matter what. All paths of glory lead but to the grave.
In the tenth stanza, this also shows that money, trophies and all symbols of glory cannot be honored inside the grave so no matter how extravagant the funeral is, it all drops to the line "you are dead". :))
In the eleventh stanza, one cannot decieve one's death and come back to life. No one can flatter anyone or anything to come back to life.
In the twelveth stanza the speaker then comes back to the poor people and ask himself of the greatness they have done like being brave and bold.
In the thirteenth stanza, it talks about the poor people and their political status in the community. The speaker notices that the poor do not have much advantage on such because they are illiterate or uneducated enough to help the society :]
In the fourteenth stanza, the speaker observes that some poor talents remain poor if we bury them underground. Our talents will never bloom if we never do anything more to improve and to help ourselves in learning and expanding our knowledge.
In the fifteenth stanza, the speaker then compares the poor people to 3 great and powerful people namely John Hampden, John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. The speaker suggest that poor people may have the ability to oppose tyranny, but never had the opportunity to exercise its ability.
In sixteenth stanza,it says that even the poor people have the right to command/lead a country when given the opportunity
In the seventeenth stanza, It says that mediocres or wealth and even the poor can use their position to take over and use their position for evil.
In the eighteenth stanza, because of this the wealthy/powerful took over and took advantage and does not let poor people rule over them so they do not let poor people take any position in the society.ü
In nineteenth stanza, And because they lack funds, poor people cannot fight back and take any position in the society.
In the twentieth stanza, it says that even if they did not did anything extravagant they still need homage and respect from other people
In the twenty first stanza,the people who died they are modest and only have their names and names of birth and death.
In the twenty second stanza,The speaker reasons that most people, faced with the prospect of dying and ultimately being forgotten, cling to life.
In the twenty third stanza,The dead rely on the living to remember them and to mourn for them. The speaker suggests that this need is so fundamental that even from the grave the buried dead seem to ask for remembrance.
In the twenty fourth stanza,the speaker addresses himself. He reasons that since he himself has been mindful of the dead, and has remembered and praised them in this poem, perhaps when he is dead someone will remember him. This person, he reasons, will necessarily be a “kindred Spirit,” someone who is also a lonely wanderer in the country, meditating on the nature of death.
In the twenty fifth stanza,the speaker imagines how an old farm laborer might remember him after his death. If, the speaker speculates, the “kindred Spirit” sees the speaker’s grave and wonders about it, perhaps an old man might offer to describe the speaker. The old man would say that the speaker was often seen wandering about the countryside at dawn.
In the twenty sixth stanza, at noon, the old man continues, the speaker would frequently stretch out under an old tree at noon, and stare at a nearby brook.
In the twenty seventh stanza, is all about the speaker being erratic and mood changes
In the twenty eighth stanza, The speaker continues to imagine this old man remembering him after his death.
In the twenty ninth stanza, the third day,the old man and his friends would have seen the speaker’s body being carried to the churchyard for burial. The old man invites this curious passerby, or “kindred Spirit,” to read the speaker’s epitaph.
Figures of Speech:
Allusion:
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep
Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast
The little Tyrant of his fields withstood;
Some mute in glorious Milton here may rest
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood
Oxymoron:
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Personification:
Can Honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Even from the tomb the voice of Nature cries,
Antithesis:
Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
Synechdoche:
And read their history in a nation's eyes,
