Home > Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Summary & Study Guide > Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Group > Question and Answer

Question:

Answers:

1. 
   mwestwood Teacher
   Community / Jr. College

   eNotes Editor

   In his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," Thomas Gray employs the neo-classical use of personification in his poem of strict iambic pentameter with eloquent classical diction.  There is a compliance and conformity to the classical form of an elegy as Gray gives his individual estimate of the world, which is, however, a Romantic expression.

   The pace of iambic pentameter [an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable 5 times--ta dum, ta dum, ta dum, ta dum, ta dum] is dignified, and Gray makes skillful use of monosyllabic words and long vowels in his elegy.  The following stanza is an example:

   Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,/Their sober wishes never learned to stray;/Along the cool, sequestered vale of life/They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

   Personification is also a neo-classical trait which Gray utilizes:

   The boast of hearldry, the pomp of power,/And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,/Awaits alike the inevitable hour:/The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

   Of course, this elegy which laments the dead, evokes the classical idea of momento mori, a Latin phrase meaning "Remember that you must die."  Death comes to all, the exalted and the humble; Gray reflects upon the lives of the common people buried in the churchyard, lives spent doing labor with simple enjoyments at the end of the day.

   Sources:

   http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/184135/An-Elegy...

   http://www.enotes.com/elegy-written

   Rate answer:

   • Flag as inappropriate

   Posted by mwestwood on Friday June 5, 2009 at 9:40 AM