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 individual. Most of the poem is a reflection on death in general. A central theme of the entire poem is that everybody is going to die eventually. It doesn't matter if you are poor or rich. You are still going to wind up dead. For example, the following line is directly pointing out that fame, fortune, and glory won't save you from death.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
As Gray continues to reflect on death in general, he begins reflecting on his own death, and he wonders what someone might say about him after his death. This occurs in stanzas 24 and 25.
For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate....
Gray then spends the next few stanzas having that "kindred spirit" ask somebody else about what the dead man (Gray) was like. In stanza 29, that person tells the "kindred spirit" to simply read the epitaph that is engraved on the tombstone.
"Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,
Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."
The following stanza is the start of the epitaph. The significance of the epitaph is that Gray is writing his own epitaph. He's reflecting on his own death that obviously hasn't happened yet. That's a bit morbid in my opinion, but his lament is a fairly uplifting account of his life. He says that he had a humble birth, but he also says that he worked hard to gain knowledge.
A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
Stanza 31 says that Gray more or less led a generous and "sincere" life, and Heaven rewarded him for that life. The epitaph ends by telling readers to not worry so much about other details because they don't matter. They don't matter because Gray is dead.
This long poem, a series of stanzas treating various natural phenomena at their ends, and set in a tranquil twilight setting (itself the ending of the day), memorializes the unheralded, unmemorialized lives of everyday beautiful things, unsung beauty that “Awaits alike the inevitable hour.” Much of the beauty of natural things, desert flowers or ocean gems, display their beauty to no audience, no receiver of their beauty. The same is true of the persons lying in a country graveyard, not famous or celebrated, but nonetheless beautiful in their simple rural setting; “Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,/Their sober wishes never learned to stray”. The epitaph that ends the poem, putatively written on a simple gravestone and addressed to some unknown country person who lived his life, “A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown” is really the Romantic poet’s oath: to be the...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
audience, the receiver of nature’s beauty, and to give an epitaph to all the otherwise unacknowledged beauty, in the poems themselves.
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 he dies. It states:
Here rests his head upon the lap of EarthA youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
But the verse is also sometimes interpreted to simply be the epitaph to an anonymous poet. Therefore it is a riddle.
However, if it refers to Gray, it is significant because it shows that he identifies with all the humble, unknown souls lying in the country churchyard. He is not setting himself above them, but states he is equally obscure. Like them, he has not been born to fortune, which would be high rank or money.
However, given that he is praising these simple people for their worthy if unsung lives, he would appear to be equally praising himself in his epitaph. If he is praising himself for his obscurity, it is ironic, because he has become a famous poet, still read centuries after his death.
What is the significance of the epitaph in the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?
The speaker in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is contemplating death. He looks upon the graves in the churchyard and he ruminates on those buried there. It is quite gloomy, a "memento mori" poem, which means to contemplate one's own mortality. As he considers mortality, the speaker considers what is important to him and therefore this gloomy poem about death does have its glass-is-half-full interpretation. There is an obvious homage to the "low" classes as they lived honest, simple lives and a criticism of the extravagance of the lives and memorials of the rich. Therefore, the poem is also the speaker's quest to find himself or a quest to understand what is important in life. And this is where the epitaph comes in. Most scholars agree that the epitaph is Gray's or the persona of the speaker's. Given the implied modesty in the epitaph, we might assume that it was written by someone else; not the speaker himself. This means that another person is looking at the speaker's death in philosophical contemplation of mortality just as the speaker himself did throughout the context of the poem.