Student Question
Explain the stanza starting with "Th' applause..." (Lines 61-4) in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard".
Quick answer:
The stanza beginning with "Th' applause..." in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" reflects the poem's theme of unrecognized potential. Gray suggests that the obscure individuals buried in the graveyard were as capable as famous figures like Cromwell or Milton. Had they been born into different circumstances, they could have influenced legislatures, improved their country, and made history. This emphasizes the idea that their lack of recognition was due to their circumstances, not their abilities.
To understand this stanza, you must first understand the previous stanza and, to some extent, the whole poem.
The point of the poem is that Gray is talking about how the obscure people buried in this graveyard are just as good as anyone else, even if they are obscure. In the previous stanza, he said that if those people had been born in other circumstances, they could have been as important as Cromwell or Milton or Hampden.
In the stanza you are asking about, he expands on this idea. He explains how they could have been important. They, like the people just mentioned, could have had legislatures listen to them and could have boldly improved their country and, thereby, made history.
So, in this stanza he is saying that the people buried in the courtyard were good enough to have been important if they had been born in other circumstances.
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