Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Summary
COMPLETE PARAPHRASES[Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard]
St. 1. The ringing of the curfew marks the close of the day. The herds walk slowly through a winding (circlinal) course over the open land, with their bellowing sounds. The tired farmer is returning home with heavy steps, tired of the day’s work. The darkness of the evening settles upon the whole place, and the poet (I).
St. 2. The faint light of the landscape now becomes invisible to the marks silence and solemnity. The only audible sounds are the dull, humming sound of the beetle which is flying about in circles, and the tinkling of bells round the necks of sheep lulling them to sleep in their distant folds.
St. 3. Save that can be heard the occasional hooting (cott uts) of the gloomy looking owl that seems to complain to the moon about the undue interference with its privacy in the chrurch-tower where it has always been living without anyone to dispute.
St. 4. Under those bare elm trees and in the shade of the yew tree are many graves, covered with grass. Here each of the rustic ancestors of this village lies in his narrow grave in eternal sleep.
St. 5. Neither the call of the fragrant morning breeze’ nor the twittering of the swallows form their straw-built shed, nor the loud and shrill crowing of the cock, sounding as a bugle, or the echoing horn of the huntsman will ever awaken them from their humble graves.
St. 6. For them will no more have the bright fire in the fire-place of their homes. No housewives will be busy in their evening duties for them. They will no longer be greeted to home by their children speaking in their prattles. No more will their children climb to their knees and compete with one another to share first their paternal kiss.
St. 7. Often did these men reap the harvest with their sickles. Often did the extremely hard soil yield to their plough that furrowed the land. How cheerfully did they use to drive to the fields their teams of horses or oxen, harnessed together! How did they use to cut down the trees with powerful blows from their axes !
St. 8. Let not ambitious persons belittle their useful toil, their simple pleasures, and their unknown living. Let not the proud people of grandeur listen to the brief and humble story of these poor men with a scornful smile.
St. 9. After all, the boast of high heredity, the pomp of power, or all that beauty or wealth can give or anything else can avoid death. All human glories ultimately end in death.
St. 10. O you proud people, you should not blame these humble (dead) men if they have no statues or other memorials on their graves along the long corridor of the chruch under the arched and beautifully carved ceiling which echoes the highsounding, sacred music of the choir.
St. 11. (After all) no urn engraved with the life story of the dead, nor the life like statue of a dead man can bring back life to the dead body. Tributes paid to a dead man in honour or flattery will not be heard by the cold ear of death.
St. 12. Perhaps, in this obscure spot lies buried one whose heart at one time was full of heavenly inspiration, or one who was fit to hold the authority of a sovereign over an empire, or one who might have the skill to make the lyre alive
St. 13. But the long accumulated knowledge of centuries remained closed to their eyes. Extreme poverty extinguished their noble enthusiasm as also the warm and generous impulses of their hearts.
St. 14. Many exquisitely beautiful and bright gems lie hidden in the dark depths of the bottomless ocean. Many beautiful flowers bloom in the wilderness and waste their charms in an environment.
St. 15. Perhaps, someone, (often) as fearless and brave, as John Hampden, to defy the cruel and unjest lord of his land, lie buried here. Or, there may be lying buried here someone, possessed of the hidden poetic gift of Milton, without the opportunity for expressing this. Perhaps, there lies here someone, who might have the (political) gift of Oliver Cromwell, without his guilt of causing bloodshed in the land.
St. 16. They had not the destiny to addresss and win applauses in senates. They were also not in a position of defy the threats of pain and destruction. To bring happiness and prosperity for their country and read in the eyes of their admiring countrymen the story of their success could not happen to them. Destiny did not permit them (to act), not simply by suppressing their virtues, but also their vices. It prevented them form causing bloodshed to capture a throne, letting loose the acts of barbaric cruelty to makind.
St. 17. Their humble destiny also prevented them from suppressing truth and extinguishing the natural sense of shame. Nor did that permit them to dedicate their poems to the centre of wealth and luxury in the words of praise or flattery.
St. 19. These men lived far from the restless activity in crowded cities. They had simple, humble desires and they kept themselves away from evil courses. They had never deviated from the peaceful path of their simple existence.
St. 20. Yet, some sort of humble memorial does exist even for them nearby to protect them from the cruel insult to their graves. These graves, adorned with badly carved stones, bear inscriptions in awkward verses, drew the attention of a passerby to implore him to breathe a sigh of sympathy as homage to the dead.
St. 21. The names and the ages of these dead men have been recorded on their tombstones by some illiterate poet, too, and this may be regarded as a substitute for the elegy on their death. There are some scriptural texts, too, engraved on their tombstones, preaching the vanity of human life and inducing a thoughtful villager to die, with a philosophic mind.
St. 22. Is there any human being who does not desire to be remembered afterdeath and give this life with its pleasures and its pains? Does there ever exist a man Kalyani-iveng37-10 who is ready to depart from this warm and happy world without casting a lingering longing look behind?
St. 23. While dying, a man seeks comfort from some loving friend or relative. The dying man seeks some tears of sympathy and affection. Even natural desire for loving remembrance is keenly felt, from the very grave. Even in the ashes kept seems to live the warmth of life.
St. 24. It is quite possible that one day somebody, with a temperament similar to his own, will, in a mood of lonely reflection, make inquiries about the poet who has not ignored the humble men lying buried here by narrating their simple story.
St. 25. Perhaps some gray-haired native of the village will say (to the inquirer), with hurried steps over the “I have often seen that man early in the morning walking dewy ground to greet the rising sun from the grassy top of the hill.”
St. 26. “He used to stretch his tired limbs at noon-time and gaze thoughtfully at the stream that flows close by with a murmuring sound, lying at the foot of that beech tree with its branches hanging downwards and with its aged and odd-looking roots twined high.”
St. 27. “He used to roam about near the wood there, muttering out his whimsical ideas to himself, sometimes smiling scornfully, sometimes looking sorrowful and pale, with his head hanging downwards, like a lonely and friendless man, or like someone tormented by anxiety, or frustrated in love.”
St. 28. “One morning, I could not see him on the hill where he had generally been seen. I did not see him on the open tract of land or near the beech tree of which he had been very fond. Another morning came, but still I did not see him near the stream, or on the lawn or at the nearby wood.
St. 29. “The next day we saw his dead body being carried towards the church in a sad procession with the chanting of funeral songs. You (an educated man) can read and approach the grave beneath that old hawthorn tree and read the verses engraved on the tombstone.”
St. 30. “Herein lies buried on the lap of earth a youn man who remained unknown to fame or fortune. His humble brith was not denied of knowledge and he was a prey to melancholy.”
St. 31. “He (this man) had a generous and sincere heart. God richly rewarded him (for his virtues). He had a sympathetic heart to shed tears for human misery. a friend that he had only desired.”He gained in Heaven.
St. 32. “Make no further effort to find out his virtures or his weakness after his death. There, in his grave, lie his virtues and faults trembling with a hope to be the merciful Lord God who is his Father.”
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD
A GENERAL AND INTRODCTORY SURVEY
, Occasion, Dates of Composition and Publication Thomas Gray was not a prolific (995) poet. He was also not at all too active or operative in his literary production. He was never found in a hurry in the matter. A long span of time often elapsed between his conception of a poem and completion of the same. That was also the material fact about Elegy written in a Country Churchyard. Gray was supposed to begin the poem in 1742, but he finished it as late as 1949. The poem was published first in a magazine in 1951. Thus there seemed to be a passage of about ten years between the beginning of the poem and its actual publication.
1. Background
There is no specific occasion behind the poem. There is nothing singular in its background. Gray is here simply the singer of the humble poor, neglected village-folk in whose destiny obscure (67272 PST) he is found to show interest. Thoughts and feelings expressed in the poem, are universal and permanent, and there is nothing to localize it.
Of course, the background of the poem is the churchyard at Stoke Poges, where Gray’s mother and aunt began to stay after his father’s death. But there is nothing to claim that that was the churhyard where he meditated. Any other country churchyard might have inspired the elegy. In fact, the setting of the poem is common and thoughts are profound and cosmopolitan. The poem is not of any race or locality but of universal humanity .
2. Title of the Poem Gray’s celebrated elegy has a long title :
Elegy Written in Country Churchgard.
The suggestion is two-fold here. First, the poem is an elegy. Second, this has the context of a country churchyard.
An elegy is a poem of lamentation or a song of mourning. This records invariably a mourner’s lamentation or mourning for a certain reason which may be the death of a near or dear one, or the loss or destruction of some object, much valued and loved. The poet here is the mourner. He mourns the death of the rude forefathers of the hamlet who would no more taste the warmth of life or enjoy the sweet ties of love. But there is another aspect of his mourning. That is the circumscribed lot of those poor, humble villagers whose possibilities withered away in incongenial and oppressive circumstances. With genuine sincerity and sympathy, Gray bewails the hard lot of those poor villagers, who remained unknown to name and fame and perished like the flower blooming in the desert air.
The country churchyard refers to the yard, just outside the church premises. In England, respectable, highly born people were used to be buried inside the premises, while the poor humble people, outside, in the churchyard. Gray’s elegy is on those very lowly placed, poverty-stricken villagers, who had been buried in the churchyard of the village.
3. A Critical Structural Analysis
I. The evening environment :
In the first three stanzas, Gray draws the evening scene around the country churchyard where he sits all by himself, as darkness settles down all over. The curfew bell is tolling, the bellowing herd are slowly winding their course over the lea and the tired ploughman is returning home, as the faint twilight on the landscape fades, covering the whole place and the poet is lort in deep darkness. The pervaded with silence and solemnity. The only sounds to break entire enviroment is the utter stillness of the time are the droning of the beetles, the tinkling of the bells of the sheep in distant folds and the occasional shrieks of the gloomy looking owl.
Gray here finely builds up the very atmosphere of the evening of his presence in the country churchyard and reflections on the life and lot of the rude forefathers of the hamlet buried there. There is a perfect harmony between the environment drawn and the poet’s reflections to follow. (Stanza 1-3)
II. The loss of the warmth of life under the irrevocable effect of death. In the next four stanzas, the poet refers to the burial of the rude forefathers of the hamlet in the country churchyard and the total end of their lives of domestic bliss and hard labour.
Those poor villagers now lie buried in the country churchyard. They are now beyond recall. The fragrant morning air, the twittering of swallows, or the crowing of cocks will no more awaken them from their sleep that knows no breaking. The warmth of domestic happiness, with blazing fire-places, attentive wives and affectionate childrens will no more greet them on their home-coming from the fields of labour. They will no more have their old ways of working-cutting trees, leading their team lands and reaping harvests.
The poet here brings out the hard and irrevocable truth of death. Death has ended absolutely those poor villagers’ simple joys and hard toil. The poet is deeply reflective here and this melancholy reflection is in tune with the very theme that the elegy celebrates. (Stanzas 4-7)
III. The inevitability of death to all.
The poet’s reflection grows more intense in the next four stanzas. The graveyard of the rude forefathers of the hamlet reminds him of the inviolable power of death that touches all.
The poet forbids proud and ambitious people to mock those poor villagers’ fruitful labour, common joys and unknown destiny. The men of grandeur, too, should not slight their short and simple stories. Death is inevitable and does not spare high heredity, worldly power, captivating beauty and immense riches, and reduces all glories to the dust of the graveyard. Proud people must not blame or belittle the poor villagers, as no monuments or memorials are raised to mark their humble graves, as in the graves (of the rich) inside the church, with long passages and ornamented roofs and resounding anthemes. After all, nothing of the urn, carved with the lifestory of the dead, or the life-like bust of the dead can bring back the life that is gone. No words of praise or flattery can have any effect on the unchangeable command of death.
These stanzas contain the profound moral about the inevitability of death,”The paths of glory lead but to the grave.” Death is a great leveller to bring all to dustthe proud rich or the humble poor. (Stanza 8-11)
IV. The possibilities of the poor dead villagers.
In the next four stanzas, Gray strikes an important note. He dwells on the possibility of the poor villagers, lying buried in the country churchyard, in a congenial situation.
The poet reflects on what those poor people might have been if placed in a better condition. There might have heen among them some one with the spark of a poetical excellence, the might of one to rule an empire, or the ability to enliven music in his lyre. There might have been also lying buried here some spirited personality, like Hampden to withstand fearlessly the tyranny of his lord, some inspired poetic talent, like Milton (however, silent), or the bold leader, like Cromwell (however, not guilty of shedding the countrymen’s blood). But their circumstances did not permit them to be so. Knowledge, richly acccumulated through ages, remained shut out to them. Oppressive poverty affected and impaired their natural spirit and intuitive leanings. Just as many bright and pure gems remain concealed in the dark caves of the ocean and many lovely flowers bloom only to fade unacknowledged in the desert, so those poor villagers remained ignored and obscure because of their circumscribed state of life. Gray here speaks out an important social truth and harps on the misfortune of the poorly placed persons, with no scope or advantages of life. This is particularly struck in the famous lines
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” (Stanzas 12-15)
V. The circumscribed
lot of the poor villagers, buried in the countryside. In the next four stanzas, Gray muses on the circumscribed lot that prevented the poor ignorant villagers from attaining eminence or degenerating
to vices and cruelty. Those poor dead rustics were denied of the celebrity of the good parliamentarians, drawing audience and admiration, fearless heroes, ignoring all dangers and threats, and noble leaders, engaged in the uplift of their nations. At the same time, that circumscribed lot not only suppressed their virtues but also confined their criminality. They were restraint from any act of murder to attain power, and did never shut out all compassionate feelings. They were also kept away from any unscrupulous and shameless pose or from any humiliating flattery to the men of rank and riches. In fact, they carried on their quiet , peaceful course of living, without any evil distraction.
Gray here asserts that the circumscribed (910) lot of the poor was a blessing in disguise to them and confined not only their growing virtues but also their crimes. He is definitely speaking out a great truth-the hard truth of the degeration that power, position and wealth often cause. Of course, the stanzas have a moralizing tone. (Stanzas 16-19)
VI. Frail memorials erected on the graves of the poor rustics.
Gray’s theme in the next four stanzas is the frail memorials, raised over the burial place of those unknown, ingorant poor villagers.
Some humble tombstones, with their names and ages and some texts from the holy Bible carved clumsily are found erected to save their departed soul from any insult. Those awkwardly executed memorials serve to commemorate the poor dead and fulful an essential human urge. After all, any dying person casts a regretful look on the world he is leaving behind and feels intensely desirous of being remembered lovingly after his death. He is much comforted at the sight of the tears of sorrows and affection in the eyes of his dear and near ones. Even in the very ashes, kept after death, this desire for loving remembrance is keenly felt.
Here the poet has touched a deep truth of human psychology. In the deep core of his heart, the man has a craving for remembrance in the living world after his death. This is common and natural to all, irrespective of riches or poverty, heredity or humility. The humanitarian appeal of the elegy is strongly echoed here. (Stanzas 20-23)
VII. The Village Poet
The next six stanzas contain the portrait of the village poet, who engraved some graves.
little details about the dead villagers on their tomb-stones, erected over their That village poet, respectful of the unhonoured dead, carved the very words on their tombstones, relating their simple tale of life. Any person of a kindred feeling, on an enquiry, may know of him from a very old person (of the place). The poet was seen in the very dawn to walk hastily through dews to see sun-rise from a lofty lawn. He would lie down under the nodding beech tree, with its old high roots entangled in the form of wreaths, all through the noon, watching the babbling brook. He was also to be seen loitering in the nearby wood, in changing moods, muttering and drooping and looking crazy at certain fits. He was, however, missed one morning is his favourite haunts. The next morning came, but he was not where he had usually been. The next day came the funeral procession, carrying this deadbody to the burial place in the churchyard. An epitaph (written by the dead poet himself) is written on his tombstone, near the old thorn tree.
The village poet is taken as the self-portrait of the poet. There is much common between Gray, the poet, and the village poet of the elegy. This adds to the autobiographical interest of the poem. (Stariza 24-29)
VIII. The Epitaph :
The poem concludes with the epitaph written by the village poet himself, for his own tombstone. The epitaph describes him as a young man, without fame or fortune. He was not denied of the bliss of knowledge and remained ever a victim of melancholy. He was of a generous and sincere nature, with sympathy for the wretched. He had sought nothing but God’s friendship and got that. No more attempt is to be made to find out his merits or draw up his weaknesses. After all, with all his qualities and limitations, he has his rest in the bosom of his father and his God.
The epitaph is a befitting tribute to one who lived plainly but thought highly, truly rich in the bounty of heart and the profundity of faith. (Stanzas 30-32)
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