Wednesday, March 3rd

Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

Setting the tone (stanzas 1-3)- “knell” (line 1), “weary way” (line 3), “solemn stillness” (line 6), “complain” (in this context, to express sorrow) – (line 10)

Themes
Mourning - (Stanzas 1-3)
The inevitability/permanence of death – “The cock’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,/No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed” (lines 19-20).
Death as the great equalizer – “The paths of glory lead but to the grave” (line 36).
The forces that shape a person’s life – “Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone/Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined” (lines 65-66)
Unrealized potential – “Some village-Hampden that with dauntless breast/The little tyrant of his fields withstood;/Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,/Some Cromwell guiltless of his country’s blood” (lines 57-60).
Respect for the unhonored dead – “Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,/Their homely joys, and destiny obscure/Nor Grandeur hear, with a disdainful smile,/The short and simple annals of the poor” (lines 29-32); “For thee, who mindful of th’ unhonored dead” (line 93).
Interconnectedness: All manner of inanimate things and concepts (death, time, knowledge) are participating and even conversing with the author.

Literary devices
Rhyme scheme – abab cdcd efef etc.
Meter – iambic pentameter
Personification – “The moping owl does to the moon complain” (line 10); Can Honor’s voice provoke the silent dust” (line 43).
Alliteration – “pomp of power” (line 33) “shapeless sculpture” (line 79)
Symbolism – “Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire” (line 46)
Analogy – “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,/And waste its sweetness on the desert air” (lines 55-56)

Alexander Pope
Biographical information - p. 1239
Questions:
What is the author's stated or implied purpose for writing this work?
What are the key features of the world in which the character(s) find themselves?
What is the author saying about human nature through his portrayal?
How did the time in which the author lived inform his vision?