Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Questions and Answers
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is Gray's attitude toward death in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?"
In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray reflects on several different aspects of death. First, he notes the physical finality of it. The people buried in the churchyard will no...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the main message of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
In his eloquent celebration of the virtues of the common man, Thomas Gray presents us with a striking picture of death as the ultimate democracy, a condition in which every human, from the highest...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What are some figures of speech in Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
There are numerous figures of speech to be found in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." A figure of speech is simply a literary device used to intensify imagery and heighten the...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What characteristics of Romanticism are found in the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
Thomas Gray lived and wrote during the neoclassical era of English literature, the period preceding the Romantic era, but scholars and readers have found certain Romantic elements in Gray's "Elegy...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen" mean?
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen" is one of the most famous and frequently quoted lines in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." It expresses one of the poem's major...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the significance of Thomas Gray's epitaph in An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
By definition, an "elegy" is a serious reflection for the dead. An elegy also tends to be a lament. Gray's elegy is exactly that; however, he isn't lamenting the death of any one, single...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the significance of the epitaph in the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
An epitaph is a tribute written to someone dead. The epitaph of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is often taken to refer to Gray himself and what he thinks might be written about him after...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Write a critical appreciation of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
That Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a powerful and poignant poem is evinced in its immediate success, as well as in the many imitations of this work. In fact, Samuel...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is Gray's attitude towards the elegy?
Gray himself is so moved by his thoughts about the simple, unsung people buried in a graveyard next to a rural church that in the poem's epitaph he expresses a feeling of heartfelt identification...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does the title "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" mean?
An elegy is a poem lamenting a deceased person or, in some cases, a lost time, place, or item. In the case of Thomas Gray's famous poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," the elegy is...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What are some neo-classical features in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
Neo-classicism was the dominant form in 18th-century English poetry. Such poems, often associated with the work of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, were based on literary models provided by Greece...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the elegiac tone in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray?
"Elegy" comes from the Greek word élegos, meaning "funeral lament." The meaning soon altered so that Latin as well as English elegies, while still poems about death, tend to be melancholic and...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How did Gray treat nature in Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard?
Thomas Gray, in Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard, treats nature with the utmost respect. According to the poem, nature holds all of mankind at the same level. The speaker considers the fact...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How does Thomas Gray glorify common men in his elegy?
In the famous poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," Thomas Gray glorifies common men by making them equal to men who once had possession of power and heraldry. Gray points out that in...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" different from conventional elegies?
A conventional elegy laments the loss of life, praises the lives of those who have died, and concludes with some form of consolation or acceptance. In "Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard," Gray...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is a "mute inglorious Milton" according to Thomas Gray?
In his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," Thomas Gray laments the missed opportunities of Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the tone of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
As the title suggests, the tone of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is mournful. An elegy is a work reflecting on a deceased person or some other lost thing. Here, Thomas Gray is elegizing a...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the setting of the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
The setting for “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a graveyard. A churchyard is another term for graveyard, referring to a graveyard that is specifically attached to a church. When the...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Cite the differences between city life and country life in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
As the narrator visits the graveyard of a country church, he muses on the people who lie buried there. He speaks of them as poor, hard working people who have lived and died without wealth or...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the universality of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray?
While some elements of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray could be considered universal, others are prototypically English. The landscape, farming methods, and church bells...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the story of "Hampden" (in line 57)?
In the poem 'Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard' the poet Thomas Gray mourns the unremarked passing of the poor. He wonders what gifts and talents they may have had that we'll never know. It is...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How many stanzas are there in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a poem written by English poet and scholar Thomas Gray, originally published in 1751. The poem consists of thirty-three stanzas, each of which consists of...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How does "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" glorify or idealize the common man?
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" idealizes the common person by exalting the simple, unsung lives of those who occupy graves in the cemetery adjoining a rural church. As the speaker walks...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
In his poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," does Thomas Gray condemn poverty, praise the aristocracy, use...
The famous poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray begins with a moody description of the day fading into darkness. The only sounds are the flight of a beetle and the call of an...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does the third stanza of the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" mean?
9. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r 10. The moping owl does to the moon complain 11. Of such, as wand'ring near her secret bow'r, 12. Molest her ancient solitary reign. He is saying it is...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
From what perspective is Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" told?
Our response to poetry is subjective and every reader has a different experience. To me, whilst Thomas Gray puts forward the case of the poor in his poem 'Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard' I...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the description of the former life of villagers who lie buried in the churchyard? lines 21-28
The speaker describes those buried in the churchyard as the poor, who have modest, simple graves. The poor were never able to fulfill their political and artistic potential because they were...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does the phrase "celestial fire" most closely mean as it is used in stanza 12?
In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray reflects for on the people buried in the eponymous rural cemetery. They were farmers and rural workers who spent their days caring for their...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Discuss the major themes that are correlated by Thomas Gray in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
One theme that emerges from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is the way we remember the dead. The speaker wonders what people will remember him for; he considers that perhaps he will be...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What time of day is pictured in the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
As the poem opens, readers are given several clues that the setting is evening. There is a "curfew," which signals an end point, and it "tolls," or rings, to mark the closing of the day. At this...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the meaning of line 36 in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
In order to fully appreciate the meaning of the thirty-sixth line of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," it is important to take some contextual clues from the previous stanza: Let not...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What are Thomas Gray's thoughts on visiting a country churchyard?
In the first two stanzas, the speaker notes that the time of day is evening, turning to night. All activity (namely human) is done, and he is alone in the countryside. The air has a "solemn...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What are some of the "sound devices" used in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray?
In this lengthy poem by Thomas Gray, the reader can find an abundance of poetic sound devices, including rhythm/meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and onomatopoeia. The poem...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does "Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap" mean?
The lines of the fourth stanza highlight, as they are intended to, the sheer ordinariness of the scene. In life, the people to whom Gray devotes his elegy were completely ordinary, everyday folk,...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the description of the scene in the churchyard given in lines 1-20?
Broken into stanzas, the description of the scene in the churchyard given in lines 1-20 is as follows. Lines 1-4: the speaker observes the signs of a country day drawing to a close: a curfew bell...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is Gray's attitude toward the people buried in the cementery? Toward the rich? Toward the poor?
An elegy is a poem written to memorialize the dead. In this elegy, Gray shines a light on the lives the poor, obscure people buried in his country churchyard. He tells the reader not to make fun...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Why is the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" so popular?
The poem was written in the classical style, but has elements of the Romantic poets who relished in the power of the individual, the beauty of nature, and the supernatural among other things....
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is an elegy? Thomas Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard"
An elegy is a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead. Unlike many elegies, however, Thomas Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" mourns the death of common men,...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Who is the section labeled Epitaph, at the end of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", about? Is it the potential...
This narrator's epitaph, or inscription on a gravestone, is potential, not actual. The speaker is still alive. He writes what he wishes to be carved on his tombstone later, after he dies. The...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does "For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey" mean?
In the twenty-second stanza of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," we see Gray reiterate the importance of remembering ordinary people, those “mute, inglorious Miltons” in the churchyard,...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
How does the form and structure of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" shape meaning? (I'm trying to access the...
Known for his juxtaposition of established forms and novel sentiments, the energetic poet Thomas Gray combines with great skill the Neoclassical style of his own century with the Romantic ideals of...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does the phrase "hoary-headed swain" mean in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"? What does the speaker say...
The phrase "hoary-headed swain" means a graying or white haired rustic person. In other words, a "swain" is an older and humble individual who does farm work or rural labor for a living. The...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
"Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, / Heav'n did a recompense as largely send: / He gave to Mis'ry all he...
These lines come from stanza 31 in Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." This stanza is part of the poem's epitaph. Epitaphs are words memorializing a person who has died. In this...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What does the twenty fifth stanza of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" mean?
In this stanza, the writer of the poem is wondering what would happen if he died. He wonders if he died, if a "Kindred spirit" who also likes to ponder the lives of the dead (as he does)...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
In the seventeenth stanza of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray, what possible blessing does the...
In stanza 17 of the poem, Gray writes that greatness was denied to the people buried in the churchyard where he stands. While their humble background prevented them from reaching greatness, it also...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Who is the speaker in the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
The speaker is the poet himself, Thomas Gray. He is memoralizing the lives of the gone and otherwise forgotten villagers. The isolation of their village,the oppression of the rulers, and their own...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
What is the explanation of the 18th stanza of the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray?
"The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, >To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse's flame." Gray is recounting...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
At what time of day does the speaker find himself in the country churchyard?
The speaker finds himself in the churchyard at dusk, or in the early evening. We know this because of the words "parting day" in the first line. The third line of the first stanza confirms this by...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Why are the poor and the rich equal according to "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"? I was thinking it was...
All of the things you say are correct, and in Gray's poem. Mainly, first and foremost, it's because they are equal in death: Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If Memory o'er...
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
In "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," how exactly does Gray's statement, from the description of lines 17-20,...
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is about human mortality. This refers to the Latin phrase memento mori which means “remember your mortality.” The significance of this phrase, as it relates...
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