Places Discussed
Country churchyard
Country churchyard. Cemetery adjoining an unnamed rural or village church. There is no way of knowing which particular country churchyard Thomas Gray was looking at or thinking about when he composed this poem. It is known, however, that he spent most of his life quietly as a professor at Cambridge University in Cambridge, England. He traveled in the summer to Scotland and the Lake District in northwest England, and as a youth he traveled to Europe. A churchyard scene such as he describes in the poem would be familiar to most Europeans.
Place is significant in Gray’s elegy. The poem opens with a peaceful, evocative description of a country churchyard at close of day. The twilight scene is simple but unmistakable. The elm and yew trees shade the graves where the common people of the town have been laid for their final rest. The wealthy folk are buried in the walls and floors of the church; their graves have statuary or beautiful decorations.
The poet muses on the lives of the persons buried there. He pictures their lives as simple farmers and housewives. The chief poignancy of the poem lies in the poet’s suggestions that some of the people buried in the churchyard may not have fulfilled the potential of their lives because of their poverty and rural isolation. Despite any talent they may have possessed, their lives were very much tied to the place in which they lived. Though they were unlearned, they had joy in their simple yet productive lives and did not look forward to death.
In the right environment some might have turned out to be great poets, like John Milton, or civic leaders, like John Hampden. He concludes the poem by considering what people may say of him when he joins those buried in the churchyard.
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"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Places Discussed." Critical Guide to Settings and Places in Literature, edited by R. Kent Rasmussen, eNotes.com, Inc., 2003, 14 Nov. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/elegy-written/in-depth/historical-social-context#in-depth-historical-social-context-places-discussed>
Historical Context
During the time Thomas Gray composed this poem, the world was experiencing a phase of intellectual growth known as the "Age of Enlightenment." This period was a philosophical movement that emerged from significant scientific advancements in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A pivotal example that greatly influenced the Enlightenment was Sir Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation. This theory outlined laws that explained and predicted the behavior of matter universally. Newton introduced this theory in his book Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, marking a major milestone in scientific history.
Simultaneously, the concept of rationalism was gaining traction in philosophy. Thinkers like Rene Descartes (1596-1650) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) embraced rationalism, striving to apply scientific methods to philosophical questions. Descartes' well-known assertion "I think, therefore I am" reflects his effort to identify a fundamental truth about the world, that he himself existed. In the realm of political science, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) examined the dynamics of social interactions in works such as The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, while John Locke (1632-1704) argued that human intelligence is shaped by experience rather than being a divine right granted to a select few.
By the early eighteenth century, intellectuals around the globe were invigorated by the new Age of Enlightenment, which promised humanity fresh hope for addressing the world's challenges. Initially, however, enthusiasts of the Enlightenment were viewed as dangerous radicals. They dismissed traditions that lacked solid rational basis, and these traditions were the foundation of most rulers' political power. Monarchs ruled due to their lineage, and landowners lived in luxury while peasants starved, all based on inherited rights. Rationalism, however, began to erode these rights and blur class distinctions. In particular, the Catholic Church, which had wielded significant influence in European politics for centuries, felt threatened by the skepticism of Enlightenment thinkers. These thinkers believed society should be governed by rational rather than religious principles. As scientific explanations of the universe, grounded in observation, gained credibility over religious ones, the Church adopted a defensive stance, imprisoning free thinkers for heresy when they published theories contradicting church doctrine. For instance, in earlier times, Galileo was imprisoned for endorsing the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system. In the early 1700s, the Church often clashed with Enlightenment theorists over even minor claims about human nature and society that could be deemed heretical. By the mid-century, when Thomas Gray wrote his "Elegy," Enlightenment rationality had garnered enough public support to stand independently. The poem, to some extent, reflects Enlightenment principles through the speaker's belief that the rural poor could achieve intelligence and success with proper education, echoing Locke's theory of the mind as a "blank slate" ready to develop. However, the speaker's pessimism about the potential for corruption if the poor were educated contrasts with the typical Enlightenment optimism regarding the benefits of education.
The pinnacle of the Enlightenment was the American Revolution in 1776. This event marked the dawn of a society grounded in rationality and fairness rather than tradition. The American Revolution was founded on the idea that the inhabitants of North America were better equipped to determine their own future than a distant king in England, highlighting a trust in the common person's capacity for reason. The Declaration of Independence stands as a significant philosophical work regarding the rights of individuals to shape their own destinies.
However, the Enlightenment as an intellectual movement concluded shortly after with the French Revolution, which spanned from 1789 to 1799. Similar to the American Revolution, the French Revolution aimed to empower individuals to control their own fates, rooted in the Enlightenment thinkers' advocacy for reason over the previous century. While the American Revolution succeeded in establishing a new society, the French Revolution descended into chaos, characterized by government crackdowns on revolutionaries and public executions of overthrown officials.
Ultimately, the oppressive feudal land ownership system was dismantled, but only after a fierce struggle that saw both sides resorting to jingoistic slogans. The ideal of rationality was overshadowed by a focus on individual rights and the belief that the uncorrupted poor were wiser than the privileged rich. The Enlightenment era transitioned into the age of Romanticism, which celebrated an almost mystical belief in individuality and the inherent goodness of nature.
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"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Historical Context." Poetry for Students, Vol. 9. Gale Cengage, 14 Nov. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/elegy-written/in-depth/historical-social-context#in-depth-historical-social-context-historical-context>
Compare and Contrast
1751: Benjamin Franklin conducted an experiment during a thunderstorm, flying a kite with a key attached to the string. He discovered that lightning behaves like electricity and can travel through conductive materials.
Today: Mastery of electricity is a cornerstone of modern society. When electrical power is lost, blackouts cause significant disruptions.
1751: Whaling was a crucial economic activity in the New England colonies, with over sixty whaling ships operating off the coast.
Today: Environmental groups now strive to protect endangered whale species, and there is significantly less demand for whale meat or whale oil for lighting.
1751: English theologian and evangelist John Wesley traveled nearly 5,000 miles each year to spread Christianity, establishing the Methodist denomination.
Today: Methodism is recognized as a major branch of Protestant Christianity.
1751: About one-fifth of the population in New England, which would become the United States after the War of Independence in 1776, were enslaved people.
1863: Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slavery illegal in the United States. This was not enforced in the South until their defeat in the Civil War in 1865.
Today: Slavery is illegal in most of the world, yet reports still surface of individuals, often immigrants and women, being forced into labor against their will.
1751: Denis Diderot published the first volume of the first modern encyclopedia, Encyclopaedie, ou Dictionaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, par une societe de gens de lettres. The complete work eventually comprised eleven volumes, with the final volume completed in 1772.
Today: Numerous established encyclopedias, along with vast amounts of uncompiled information, are accessible globally via the Internet from any computer terminal.
Cite this page as follows:
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard - Compare and Contrast." Poetry for Students, Vol. 9. Gale Cengage, 14 Nov. 2024 <https://www.enotes.com/topics/elegy-written/in-depth/historical-social-context#in-depth-historical-social-context-compare-contrast>
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