Elegy written in a country churchyard explanation. Audible UK 2022-10-25
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An elegy is a type of poem that reflects on death and loss. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a poem by Thomas Gray, written in the mid-18th century. It is a meditation on the idea that death is an equalizer, as it comes for all people, regardless of their social status or accomplishments.
The poem is set in a rural graveyard, where the speaker reflects on the lives and deaths of the people buried there. They note that these people were likely simple, unassuming folk who lived and died without much fanfare or recognition. Despite their humble origins, the speaker suggests that they were just as deserving of love and respect as those who were more wealthy or famous.
The speaker also muses on the idea that these individuals may have had untapped potential and talents that were never fully realized. They suggest that, had they been given the same opportunities as those in higher social classes, they may have accomplished great things. The poem thus serves as a tribute to the overlooked and undervalued members of society.
In the final stanzas, the speaker turns their attention to their own mortality, and wonders what their own epitaph will say. They express a hope that, when their time comes, they will be remembered with kindness and affection, just as the people in the churchyard are.
Overall, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a poignant and thought-provoking meditation on death, loss, and the human condition. It reminds us to reflect on the value and worth of every person, and to consider the many paths that life can take.
Elegy Written in Country Churchyard
It seems with animals; darkness too is following them. The dead body ha to sense to hear speeches of sycophancy made to please the dead. The poet imagines that on getting proper opportunity some of these villagers could be great like Hampden. The suppression of popular recreation did not, however, end with the reinculcation of familial values and the discouragement of all forms of public assembly. This would be a reasonable assumption, since so much of the poem is devoted to praising the simple virtues of the poor. He goes on to wonder if among the lowly people buried in the churchyard there had been any natural poets or politicians whose talent had simply never been discovered or nurtured.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Historical and Social Context
Leisured classes not only sought to infuse the poor with the opiate of ignorance by prohibiting reading as a form of recreation, but also they tried to suppress rural sports. Thereafter, during 1739-41, he made a tour of the continent, with the friend Horace Walpole, a son of the then British Prime Minister. In the end, the oppressive system of feudal land ownership was abolished, but only at the end of a bitter struggle that required both sides to focus their attention on jingoistic slogans. Indeed, by the end of the poem it is evident that the speaker himself wishes to be identified not with the great and famous, but with the common people whom he has praised and with whom he will, presumably, be buried. Dr Julie's simple but expert advice and powerful coping techniques will help you stay resilient no matter what life throws your way. The epitaph acknowledges that this dead man was not lucky in Fame or Fortune. The poem presents the reflections of an observer who, passing by a churchyard that is out in the country, stops for a moment to think about the significance of the strangers buried there.
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Poem Summary and Analysis
Where are the revels in the hall? In fact this disconcerting switching of mood is recurrent. The readers can see a glimmering landscape. Country churchyard Country churchyard. They spent their days quietly in the cool and secluded valley of life. Their discouraging poverty crushed their enthusiasm and disheartened their talent.
The poet muses on the lives of the persons buried there. Lines 93-96 In this stanza, the speaker addresses himself. They are those of the safe dead, yet they also form a melancholic, personal estimation of the poet—alive but in the ashes of an entombed self. Their rural background prevented them from developing their innate talents. Interest in Ruins and the Churchyard: The poet draws a lively word picture of the churchyard.
Everybody dies with desire of living more. His merits made him hopeful of getting the mercy of God and he is looking for the day of Judgement, when he would be face to face with God, his father. He is a conscious poet-artist. On the other hand, it tends toward the emotionalism and individualism of the Romantic poets; most importantly, it idealizes and elevates the common man. Might Gray have stripped this farmer of topicality because local farm laborers had a history of revolt? In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarisation. The poem thus actively buries or silences their desires. A quatrain is a four-line stanza.
Stanza 8 LetnotAmbitionmocktheirusefultoil, Theirhomelyjoys,anddestinyobscure; NorGrandeurhearwithadisdainfulsmile Theshortandsimpleannalsofthepoor. In stanza 8, the poem begins naming the attributes that are normally considered desirable but are now considered pointless when compared with the lives of the rustic dead in the country graveyard. They were ignorant of the wide range of knowledge and treasure of time. Lines 89-92 The dead rely on the living to remember them and to mourn for them. These readings each, in turn, offer the promise of coherence, but it is only a promise, for the text offers no implicit or explicit support for any of them.
Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, Sunk though he be beneath the wat'ry floor; So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore Flames in the forehead of the morning sky: So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high. Note that the final line of this stanza is enjambed; it continues into the following line—and in this case, the next stanza. He was hardly the revolutionary. The poem, then, is an elegy not only for the common man, but for the speaker himself. These highway disturbances were not uncommon and were noted in 1727, 1731, 1734, and in 1735—36 in Bristol, Gloucester, Ledbury, and Herefordshire. Gray is comparing the village people to undiscovered gems in caves in the the ocean and to undiscovered flowers in the desert Cummings. Yet his poetic out-put is very little.
O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved? The loud songs of their false praise cannot make them alive. Sitting at the churchyard of Stoke Poges, the poet accounts for the rural activities in the evening. Everybody dies with desire to live more. He will take him to the grave under the thorn plant where the poet was buried. The last date is today's date — the date you are citing the material. BIBLIOGRAPHY Lonsdale, Roger, ed. In particular, the Catholic Church, which had been a strong influence in European politics for centuries, was threatened by the skepticism of Enlightenment thinkers who felt society should be organized according to rational rather than religious principles.
