Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray Essay

Thomas Grays poem, Elegy Written in a Country churchyard, was first published in 1751. Grays idea of rustic lifetime as describe in this poem is agrarian and devoted to the land. He talks of the plow turning the sod and of the sickle mowing down the grain. He mentions the plowmen driving their team of draught animals from the fields. He tells of straw sheds and of slew awaking to the crow of the rooster. Gray uses the metaphor of sleep to describe death. He says that those asleep no longer picture the voices of children or the touch and the kisses of those loved ones. He describes death as lending a cold spike and those dead as no longer hearing a call to honor nor does it hear either words of flattery. Gray comments on the deaths of the rich and powerful, saying that those dead are no better withdraw than the poor dead rustics. He says that the fact that the rich mans bones are in some fine urn does not allow him to enjoy his mansion any more than the farmer enjoys the blue earth in which his bones are placed. Gray takes on the issue of class as a rhetorical device to get his point across that the rewards for both are equal and that death is a leveler of the playing field. He impresses upon the reader the fact that in the humble churchyard may lie the body of a life that had potential for greatness. He says that many sweet blossoms bloom, live and crumble to dust unseen and unknown by anyone. If I were to be lying in the graveyard of the country church I would like to have Gray say of me that I was a friend of heaven, of course, and that I saw and enjoyed the dawns of my years and lived my life to the fullest. Now that I am dead left me sleep in peace and clear and forget the frailties I displayed on earth. Works Cited Gray, T. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 1751