Presented By: Monir Hossen

1. Presented By:
Monir Hossen
Lecturer
Department of English
CCN University of Science & Technology,
Comilla Bangladesh
Phone: 01733 873084
Email: monir.eng.cou@gmail.com

2.  Born: December 26 , 1716
 Birthplace:
 Died: July 30 , 1771
 Location of death: Cambridge,
Cambridgeshire, England
 Remains: Buried, St. Giles Churchyard,
Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire,
England
 Religion: Deist
 Sexual orientation: Gay

3. Early Life
 Fifth of 12 children
The only child of Philip and Dorothy Gray
to survive infancy.
He lived with his mother after she left his
abusive father.

4. Education
 Educated at Eton College where his uncle was one of the
masters.
 A delicate and scholarly boy who spent his time reading
and avoiding athletics
 Three close friends at Eton: Horace Walpole, son of the
Prime Minister Robert Walpole; Thomas Ashton,
and Richard West
 1734 , went to Peterhouse, Cambridge
 Left without a degree
 Receipt of legacy from his paternal aunt meant that he
had no urgent need to find a job

5. Poetry  1745 (29) his friendship with Walpole was
renewed
 Walpole admired his poetry and persuaded
him to publish
 1747 (31) – Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton
College, Ode on Spring , Ode on the Death
of a Favourite Cat , Drowned in a Tub of
Goldfishes
 His ELEGY ON A COUNTRY CURCHYARD
TOOK HIM 9 YEARS BEFORE IT WAS
PUBLISHED. FROM 1742 (26)- 1751 (35)
 1757 – The Bard and the Progress of Poesy
 Norton Nicholls – his love interest . An
undergraudate wose knowledge of Dante
impressed him.
 1751- Journey among te English Lakes
 1768 (52) – Fatal Sisters, The Descent of Odin
and The Triumphs of Owen

6. Last Years
• 1751 – He proposed to visit Bonstetten in
Switzerland during the summer but was struck by a
sudden illness and died after a few days
• He was buried in St. Giles churchyard in Stoke
Poges nect to his mother

7. About the Poem
 128 line poem
 It is about the subject of human mortality
 The speaker urges the reader to remember
him for his human frailty , that he is indeed
common with everyman
 poem invokes the classical idea of memento
mori, a Latin phrase which states plainly to
all mankind, "Remember that you must die.“
 in death, there is no difference between great
and common people.
 it idealizes and elevates the common man.

8. Summary
 It was an evening time. The poet is standing in the
church yard. The ringing of a curfew bell is heard. A
herd of cattle from pasture started returning home.
 Farm workers, after hard work, started going homes,
indicating that the activities of day time are drawing
to a close. The poet is then left alone to contemplate
the isolated rural scene.
 The poet sets a melancholy atmosphere by describing
the ringing of curfew bell in somber tone. The curfew
bell does not simply ring; it "knells"—a term usually
applied to bells rang at a death or funeral. From the
very beginning, Gray reminds us of human mortality.

9.  There is a tone of sincere melancholy throughout. He started
composing the verses of this poem by bringing before his mind`s
eyes the Churchyard at Stock-Poges. The poem begins with the
description of the Church Yard at Stock-Poges towards sunset. He
alone stands by the side of the graveyards. The curfew or the evening
bell warning the people to retire to rest has tolled.
 The farmer is returning home after his day`s work. It is dark all
around and the air itself is silent in a solemn manner without any
breeze. The cattle are going homeward and none is to be seen except
the poet standing by the side off the graveyards. The whole
atmosphere is serene.
 Nothing is heard except the hooting of the owl and the drowning
sound of the beetle and tinkling of the bells of the herd in distant
folds in the village.

10.  Even those noises are feeble, showing that the beetle and Cattle are
tired. There is indeed one sound which is not “drowsy”.
 The sound of an owl hooting intrudes upon the evening quiet .
 The hooting of the moping Owl appears that it complains to the
moon that the poet is trying to destroy her ancient solitary reign.

11.  The hooting of Owl adds to the gloom, since it appears to be
complaining about persons that go near her lonely living place.
 There is no companion for the poet at that time except darkness. In
such an atmosphere, the poet is found by himself by the side of the
church yard.
 The melancholy atmosphere is suited to the poem.

12. Theme
 It mourns the death not of great people but of common men and
meditates on the nature of human mortality.
 That in death there is no difference between great and common
people if among the lowly people buried in the churchyard there
had been any natural poets or politicians whose talent had simply
never been discovered or nurtured

13. Elements
Classical elements
 use of alternately quatrains of iambic pentameters
already present in Dryden
 use of abstract personifications (ambition, grandeur
etc.)
 universality of themes (death, obscurity,
contentment, etc.)
 idyllic view of country life
 excessive time required to polish each stanza, thus
excluding immediacy of inspiration
 clear influence of poetic classics such as Dante
(opening lines); Lucrezius (stanza 6);
Petrarch(ending)

14. Graveyard Poetry
 A type poetry presenting melancholic reflection on morality,
framed in narratives involving visits to graveyards and other
reminders of death. One of the most celebrated examples of
this type of verse is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country
Churchyard.
 With its personal and introspective concerns, such verse has
been seen as significant as part of a transitional phase
between publicly focused neoclassical verse and Romantic
lyricism, but it is of interest not only as a stepping-stone in
literary history.
 Involving a focus upon loss, and with extensive analyses of
feelings, such verse played a part in the wider culture of
sensibility.

15.  Meter and Rhyme Scheme Gray wrote the poem in four-line
stanzas (quatrains)
Each line is in iambic pentameter
 Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of ten syllables
 In each pair, the first syllable is unstressed (or unaccented),
and the second is stressed (or accented), as in the two lines
that open the poem:.......The CUR few TOLLS the KNELL of
PART ing DAY.......The LOW ing HERD wind SLOWly OER the
LEA .......In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third
and the second line rhymes with the fourth (abab), as follows

16.  The speaker uses sad diction and symbols such as
owl, death, grave, sleep also, the owl symbolizes
death. The setting The time is the mid 1700s, about a
decade before the Industrial Revolution began in
England. The place is the cemetery of a church.
Evidence indicates that the church is St. Giles, in the
small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in
southern England. Gray himself is buried in that
cemetery. William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor house at
Stoge Poges.

17. Figures of Speech
Alliteration Repetition
 Plowman homeward plods his weary way (line 3)
 The cocks shrill clarion, or the echoing horn (line
19)
 Nor cast one longing, lingring look behind? (line
88)
 Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn (line
107)
 Or crazd with care, or crossd in hopeless love.
(line 108)

18. Metaphor
 Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark
unfathomed caves of ocean bear . Full many a
flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its
sweetness on the desert air. (lines 53-56) -
Comparison of the dead village people to gems
and flowers Or heap the shrine of Luxury and
Pride With incense kindled at the Muses flame.

19. Metonymy
Use of a word or phrase to suggest a related word or phrase
 To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land
 Land stands for people.

20. Personification
 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)
 Ambition and Grandeur take on human
characteristics. But Knowledge to their eyes her
ample page Rich with the spoils of time did neer
unroll (line 49-50)
 Notice that Knowledge becomes a person, a female.
Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth, And
Melancholy mark’d him for her own. (lines 119-120)

21. Thank you