Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Group

Question:

curio
curio
Student
High School - 11th Grade

What figures of speech in the poem of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" in stanzas 10 - 12?

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Posted by curio on Sunday January 11, 2009 at 2:06 PM and tagged with country churchyard, elegy, elegy written in a country churchyard, figures of speech, gray, monuments, stanzas 10 12, written in a country churchyard.


Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

    There's loads! I've picked out some below-

    Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,
    If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,     
    Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
    The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

    There's alliteration in the final line ("pealing / praise") and an anastrophe (change of word order) in the second ("If Memory... raise" which would normally read "If Memory raises...")). 

    Can storied urn or animated bust     
    Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?     
    Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,     
    Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?  

    Rhetorical questions structure this stanza. There are also several personifications (like there were on 19th century graveyard monuments) of Memory, Honour, Flattery and Death. I'd argue that there's also a pun on "bust" (statue/breast). 

    Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid     
    Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;     
    Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
    Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.     

    There's ellipsis of the verb ("laid" applies to both line 2, and line 3-4). And hyperbole, I think, to make the point. And there's obviously rhyme and enjambment throughout these stanzas - and the poem.

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Monday January 12, 2009 at 1:41 PM