illustration of a country churchyward with a variety of gravestones

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

by Thomas Gray

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Figures of speech in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

Summary:

"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray employs various figures of speech, including personification, as seen in "the moping owl does to the moon complain," and metaphors, such as "the paths of glory lead but to the grave." These devices enhance the poem's contemplative tone and reflect on mortality and the lives of the common people buried in the churchyard.

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What are some figures of speech in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?

Thomas Gray's powerful and evocative poem, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," employs a Neo-classical form while demonstrating poetic techniques of Romanticism. Gray's elegy is written in heroic quatrains of a lofty tone--a stanza of four lines of iambic pentameter having the rhyme scheme abab. It ends with an epitaph, a poetic inscription intended to be on a gravestone. 

Below are some figures of speech that this poem employs. 

Personification: the attribution of human traits to non-human or inanimate objects

  • In stanza 9: "Let not Ambition mock their useful tool." Ambition is capitalized as though it were a name, and it "mocks," which is a human trait.
  • In stanza 9: "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,/ And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave." "Boast" and "pomp" are human characteristics.
  • In stanza 11: "Flattery" can "soothe," and "Death" possesses a "cold ear." "Flattery" is given the human ability to soothe; Death is mentioned as a person who possesses an ear and refuses to hear.
  • In stanza 12: "Hands" might have been "swayed"--(persuaded). Hands are a human trait, and people persuade.
  • In stanza 13: "Knowledge to their eyes her ample page." The feminine pronoun her is used with the quality of knowledge, thus affording it human qualities.
  • In stanza 22: "Forgetfulness" is "dumb." Because most objects and living things are mute, making it notable that something or someone is unable to speak is personification.
  • In stanza 23: "The voice of Nature." Nature is likened to a person who speaks.

Metaphor: (often) an unstated comparison of two unlike things; one thing is spoken of as though it were something else

  • In stanza 9: "The boast of heraldry" (noble descent, wealth and power) and "the paths of glory" (honor and distinction) "lead but to the grave." Gray makes unstated comparisons of noble descent to the possession of wealth, power, and "paths of glory" to distinction.
  • In stanza 15: "The little tyrant of his fields withstood." Here, Gray alludes to the unknown poor who are buried in the churchyard and the possibility that some of them may have been infamous or great if they had been of a higher social station and of notable names. The farmer, for instance, is likened in an unstated comparison to a "tyrant." Also, another buried in this forgotten churchyard may have been "Some mute inglorious Milton," and still another may have been "Some Cromwell."

Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds in a line of poetry

  • In stanza 9, the /p/ is repeated-- "the pomp of power"
  • In stanza 22, the /l/ is repeated-- "Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?"
  • In stanza 25, the /h/ is repeated, as is /s/: "Haply some hoary-headed swain may say."
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What are some figures of speech in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?

Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" contains different figures of speech (or poetic/rhetorical devices). 

Alliteration is found in line six. Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound within a line of poetry. Line six contains the words "solemn stillness." The repetition of the "s" sound is alliteration. Alliteration is also found in line 36: "glory lead but to the grave." Here, the "g" sound is repeated. 

Personificationis found in line ten. Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. In line ten, the owl mopes and complains (characteristics, or abilities, which humans possess). Another example of personification is found in line 44: "or Flattery sooth the dull cold ear of Death." Here, the capitalization of "Flattery" and "Death" show make each proper nouns, as with names. 

Assonance is found in line 41. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound. The repetition of the "a" sound in the following line is assonance: "Can storied urn or animated bust." 

 

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What is the figure of speech in lines 1-28 of "An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?

A figure of speech is any use of language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words. It can include effects for emphasis, such as repetition or rhyme.

Line 10 uses more than one figure of speech:

The moping owl does to the moon complain . . .

First, it employs alliteration, an effect that puts words that begin with the same consonant in close proximity. This creates a sense of rhythm and emphasis. In the line above, "moping" and "moon" both begin with m, which puts emphasis on those two words.

Second, line 10 personifies the owl. Personification is attributing human characteristics to an animal or object. The owl is described as "moping" and "complaining," characteristics typical of humans, not animals.

Lines 18–19 also use alliteration in the repetition of s and c sounds at the beginnings of words:

The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn . . .
Line 20 employs euphemism, which is a polite or roundabout way of saying something harsher:
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
This line means that the swallow, cock, and horn will no longer rouse the people in the country churchyard because they are dead and buried. "Lowly bed" is a euphemism for a grave.
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What is the figure of speech in lines 1-28 of "An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?

Thomas Gray, the poet, employs an extended metaphor in the first 7 stanzas to compare the end of humans' life and the mourning for their loss to the end of a day. His use of colors such as grey, sounds such as animals who are readying for the night or the bell "knelling," and images such as a "mouldering heap" of turf illustrate the close of not only the day but also of a life that will never experience those colors, sounds, or images again.

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

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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