GRAY'S
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD

Introduction

Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard is among the greatest and most popular poems in the English language. Despite certain flaws found by the critics and despite the difference of opinions this poem has continued to delight and enthrall the readers ever since it was written. With its deep human interest, its profundity and nobility of sentiment, the stateliness of its measure and its perfect style and diction it speaks to every one, for it expresses to perfection what every one feels. According to Douglas Bush it is the best known secular poem in the language in which a tender heart beats under the stiff brocade of style. Even Dr. Johnson, who was not very much pleased with Gray's Pindaric odes, acknowledges the beauty and greatness of the Elegy when he remarks: "The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo."

Popularity of the Poem

The popularity of the Elegy has transcended the limits of time and place. It has been widely read and admired in all places and in all times. Grierson and Smith regard it as the most widely known poem of the 18th century alongwith Oliver Goldsmith's Deserted Village. And it is probably still the most popular and the best loved poem in the English language.
The Elegy was first circulated among Gray's friends in a manuscript form. They were highly impressed by the poem and thought it fit to be published. One of his friends Walpole arranged for its publication. It was first published by Robert Dodsley on Feb 15, 1751. The poem was an instant hit and elicited favourable response and several reprints were made in Gray's own time. It has been translated into a large number of languages like Greek, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Latin, Italian, Japaneese etc.

Reasons of Popularity

Several critics have advanced many theories for the immense popularity enjoyed by Gray's Elegy. Matthew Arnold quotes Dr. Gregory as writing "Gray told me with a great deal of acrimony that the elegy owes its popularity entirely to the subject, and the public would have received it as well if it had been written in prose." This remark implies that the poetic merits or style have nothing to contribute to the popularity of the poem. It is certainly an understatement about the poetic beauties of the poem.
In fact, the popular appeal of the Elegy may be said to be due to both its theme and poetic techniques. It deals with the theme of death and the transitoriness of all worldly glory and human achievements. It also deals with the lot of common men on this earth. These universally appealing themes contributed much to the enduring popularity of the poem. The melancholic note of the poem is in keeping with the poetic taste of Gray's age and it enhances its appeal.
However, the poetic beauties of the poem are no less important than its theme. Gray's handling of the elegiac quatrain is superb. The language and diction are simple and devoid of unnecessary ornamentation. There is a dignity and grace in the movement of verse. An apt use of monosyllabic words, balanced phrases and parallel structure lend a beauty and force to the lines of each quatrain. There is a strong autobiographical note in the poem which may appeal to many readers. But what is most appealing is the realisation caused by the poem that all 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave'. It would not be proper to undermine either of the two elements - thought and style - in the poem. Both are complementary and both add beauty and appeal to the poem.

Date, Occasion and Circumstances of Composition

It is difficult to assign any exact date of composition of the Elegy. However, a rough idea can be formed on the basis of certain evidences. Gray's friend Marson has mentioned some of Gray's poems written in August 1742 in his Memories. He remarked "I am inclined to believe that the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was begun, if not completed, at this time also." On the basis of this remark, the Elegy may be said to have been begun in 1742 during the period of Gray's annual stay at Stoke Poges. In the autumn of 1746, Gray wrote to a friend Wharton from Stoke Poges: "The Muse. I doubt, is gone, and has left me in far worse company; if she returns, you will hear of her." This means that he was not able to write much of the poem by 1746. In fact, he could write only some portions of it, that he referred to, in another letter to Wharton, as 'a few autumnal verses.' According to Walpole "The Churchyard was posterior to Richard West's death (1742) atleast three to four years." It is most likely that the Elegy was begun about the year 1746 at Stoke Poges or atleast planned there. Gray may have taken some stanzas, already composed, to Cambridge, and added some more stanzas to it, there. It may said to have been left incomplete for sometime, then taken up again and completed by the time of the death of his aunt Mary Antrobus, in Nov 1749. Gray enclosed a copy of of the complete poem to his friend Walpole with a letter which he wrote on June 12, 1750 from Stoke Poges.
The Elegy is usually said to have been written to commemorate Gray's friend, Richard West who died in 1742. The Youth referred to in the poem is usually identified as West. Some critics identify this youth with Gray himself. However, Joseph Foladore opposes the idea of identifying the youth with either West or Gray. He remarks : "attempts to make either West or Gray, the subject of the Elegy invariably pauperise the poem and reflect profoundly on the author's artistic intelligence." Even if the poem is said not to be directly influenced by West's death, its gloomy emotional tone may be said to be due to Gray's sense of loss over his friend's early death.

The Title and Different Versions of the Poem

'Stanzas wrote in Country Churchyard' was the title which Gray had originally given to the poem as it exists in early draft in the form of Eton College manuscript. It was on the suggestion of his friend Marson that he altered the title to the present one. The poem, under the new title, exists in the form of two manuscripts preserved at Pembroke College and the British museum. In its final published version, the poem is included in two books, Bentley's Designs (1753) and Gray's Poems (1768).
The poem, as existing in the form of Eton College manuscript, contains only 22 stanzas including those four concluding stanzas which were later omitted from the expanded version. Gray thoroughly revised and expended the poem. In its present form, the poem consists of thirty two quatrains or 128 lines in all. With the addition of new stanzas the size of the poem was increased. Certain minor variations were also introduced. An example may be found in the 15th stanza (lines 57-60) where the names of Cato, Tully and Caesar were replaced by those of Hampden, Milton and Cromwell probably in order to avoid the use of classical allusions. The three stanzas constituting the 'Epitaph' were also added in the revised version. Objections were raised against the addition of the epitaph and poet W S Landor ridiculed this saying "tin kettle tied to the poem's tail. Moreover, in the revised version personal references were allotted more space. The concluding three stanzas are concerned with the poet himself and contain a repetition of what has already been said about him in the main body of the poem.

Sources and Background

Like many great poems, Gray's Elegy owes much to several sources, and belongs to certain traditions continuing in the first half of the 18th century. The tradition of 'landscape' poetry to which Thomson's Seasons and Pope's Windsor Forest belong, may be said to have provided Gray with an idea of the type for his Elegy. Gray's philosophical musings against the background of natural scenery in the countryside, have been inspired by this tradition. The melancholy and subjectivity of the 'Grave yard' poetry accounts for the tone of the Elegy.
There are other sources on which Gray may be said to have drawn much. The personified abstractions appearing in the Elegy have been inspired by the neo classical poetry of his time. The moralising manner of the Elegy owes much to that of the poems of the 17th and 18th centuries. For the stanzas employed in the poem, Gray owes much to several existing poems. The quatrains in pentameter is modeled on the stanzas used by James Hammond in his Love Elegies which were adaptations from the Latin poet Tibullus. According to D C Tovey "the quatrain of ten syllables in which the Elegy was written had been used before, but never, perhaps with conspicuous success, except in Dryden's Annus Mirabilis. In Gray's hands it acquired a new beauty and a music of its own." Gray's elegiac quatrains, though based on the stanzas used by other poets, combine beauty, melody, and graceful movement, and thus prove an improvement on the earlier models.
John Butt has nicely summed up the various sources of thought, content and setting in the The Elegy: "The Curfew itself he drawn from a bell in Dante's Purgatorio that from far off seemed to lament the dying day, though he must also have recalled it sounding in Ll Pensoroso.... . He could not resist adopting Lucretius's pity for the dead house holder, a vignette that was later to appeal both to Collins and Burns and as he re-expressed it in the sixth stanza of the Elegy, he shows by a touch here and there that he recalled both Dryden's translation and Thomson's adaptation of it in Winter."

Theme and Subject

The themes dealt in the Elegy are familiar, and there is nothing original in them. According to Douglas Bush "the Elegy is a mosaic of traditional motifs, classical and modern." The dominant theme of the poem is death. It deals with the death of the rude fore fathers of the village, death as a common occurence in the world and the anticipated death of the youth who may be the poet himself or the his friend West in whose memory the poem has been written. In fact the shadow of death hovers over the poem. The opening line itself, with the curfew tolling 'the knell of the parting day' is indicative of death.
Another theme treated in the Elegy is the transitoriness of all human glory and joy. The poet attempts to show that all 'the paths of glory lead but to the grave.' By implication, the futility of all human ambitions and aspirations is hinted at. The contrast between the lives of the rich and poor or the privileged and the unprivileged forms another theme in the poem. The poet shows how the poor are not in a position to enjoy the luxuries and happiness of life in this world. Their poverty proves an obstacle in the path of their progress. But this poverty is a blessing in disguise. If it does not allow people to rise higher, it also restrains them from doing evil, by limiting their power to do so. The rich, on the other hand, possess the power and means to do good to themselves and the world. But they also have powers to commit mischief and bring destruction on innocent people.
The poem also deals with the desire for fame, the desire to be remembered after death. This theme is treated along with other themes in the poem. The poet shows how even the poor rustics try to perpetuate their memory through inscriptions on some 'frail memorial' decked with 'uncouth rhymes' and 'shapeless sculpture'.
Despite the dominance of the theme of death, the Elegy also presents a nostalgic longing for life. It shows how no man dies without casting one longing lingering look behind. A desire for sympathy and for being remembered after death is present in the poem.
Thus the Elegy deals with a number of themes. These themes may not be original but Gray's manner of treating them has lent a force and urgency to them.

Critical Summary of the Poem

The Elegy is a poem consisting of 128 lines divided into 32 quatrains including three stanzas devoted to the epitaph. Each quatrain is self contained and usually conveys a complete sense. The movement of thought from one stanza to another takes place in a smooth manner. The structure of the whole poem is skillfully organised and gives the impression of a carefully designed edifice.

The first stanza (lines 1-4) presents a beautiful picture of the natural scene in the evening, and sets the tone and atmosphere of the poem. The day is over and the cattle are moving slowly after the day's toil. The ploughmen, fatigued after the day's toil, are returning home. The poet/speaker is left alone engulfed in darkness like the rest of the world.

All this description is highly pictorial in manner and conjures up beautifully the gloomy atmosphere of the evening. Perhaps, the poet aims at preparing the readers to read about his gloomy and pensive thoughts. Graham Hough remarks "Gray is here far less concerned with nature as an object of contemplation than with the readers -- the readers whom he wishes to lull into a resigned, acquiescent, summer evening frame of mind."

Stanza 11 and 111 continue the description of the calm and quiet atmosphere of the evening. While the darkness slowly descends on earth, 'the glimmering landscape' fades, and the atmosphere is calm and still. This calm and stillness is disturbed only by the noise made by the wheeling beetle and the tinkling of the drowsy cattle in the 'distant fold'. The breaking of the silence of the evening is also caused by the 'moping owl' from the 'ivy mantled' tower, who complains to the moon about the solitary traveler who has encroached into his solitary kingdom of solitude.

If in the first stanza, there is fine verbal imagery, in these two stanzas, beautiful auditory images have been presented. The use of alliteration and onomatopoeia (as in drowsy tinkling) is remarkable.

Stanza 1v - v11 contain a touching reference to the rude fore fathers of the village who lie buried beneath the shade of the yew tree. They are enjoying a lasting sleep and cannot be aroused by the touch of the morning breeze or the twittering of the swallow, or the clarion call of the cock, or the 'echoing horn'. They will now not enjoy the comforts and privileges of domestic life, that they enjoyed while they were alive. The fire will not burn in their hearths, the house wife will no longer keep busy in her domestic work, and the children will not rush to their father to welcome him back home by climbing up his knees and sharing his loving kiss. The poet describes how, during their life time, these dead ancestors of the village used to plough the hard fields and reap the harvest. They used to drive their cattle joyfully to the field and when they struck at the trees to chop them, these trees yielded to their stroke. These fore fathers thus performed, during their life time, the normal activities and lived a simple happy life, as any body in the village would do.

Now dead, they cannot perform any of these activities. Lyly Glazier believes "each rude fore father of the hamlet has become a type for man kind. There is thus a double Every man in the poem -- the poet observer who is every man still alive and reflecting about death, and each rude fore father, who is Every man already dead and underground. They merge together later in the poem, when the poet suddenly projects himself into his own grave and from there reflects about his own hopeless desire for immortality."

In stanzas v111 - x1 the poet asks the ambitious and highly placed people not to mock at the 'useful toil', 'homely joys' and 'destiny obscure' of the poor. According to him, all the pride and glory and power associated with beauty, pomp and wealth, is transitory, and awaits the final doom. The poet advises the proud men not to blame these poor people if grand memorials are not erected to commemorate them or high sounding praises are not heaped on them after their death. He is of the view that by erecting memorials or busts of these dead men, we cannot bring them back to life. Similarly, songs of praise and honour cannot persuade death to spare their lives. Death is inevitable and will come to all whether they be rich or poor. The theme of contrast between rich and poor, the great and the humble, is referred to in these stanzas. The difference between rich and poor is illusory so far as death is concerned. Death is a great leveller. According to Lyly Glazier "just as the preceding stanzas presented the paradox of death in life for the obscure country men, so these four stanzas present the same paradox for the honoured and flattered great. Life is for all an ironic paragraph ending in death."

The next seven stanzas (x11 - xv111) present the poet's view about the overpowering of life by death, which makes any human achievement by the poor people impossible. The dead people burried in the churchyard had much potentialities for development. If chance had been given they might have become great men, great politicians, great poets. But their enthusiasm was chilled by poverty and they could not benefit from the rich treasures of human knowledge. The poet believes that many men remain unknown like gems that lie hidden in the dark caves of ocean, and like many a flower which grows in the desert where its beauty and fragrance remain unenjoyed and unadmired. Similarly, among those dead forefathers of the village, there may be somebody who might have become great like Hampden, Milton and Cromwell. But their merits remained unrecognized and their talents unutilised. It was not their destiny to command respect and receive praise in the senate or to defy pain and ruin. Nor was it in their lot to make their country happy and prosperous, and thus to become famous in history.

However, if these poor people were restrained from becoming great and famous, and their powers of doing good were held in check, their capacity for harming others was also limited by their inability to do much in life. Their fate confined their crimes or forbade them to ascend the throne by violent methods or gaining any other advantage through cruel means. These people did not have to hide truth or supress feelings of shame or to foster luxury and pride through flattery. The poet means to point out here both the advantages and disadvantages of death. If it deprives man of his chances to become great and renowned and to do good to others, it also restrains him from acts involving cruelty, selfishness and violence. In a way, therefore, death is good for man.

In stanza x1x, the poet describes the life led by the dead forefathers. According to him, they never tried to give up the quiet tenor of their life which was lived in aloofness from the maddening struggles of people in this world. They led a retired life in seclusion and peace. The poet thus points to the unambitious life of the poor as contrasted with the life of the rich and great whose lives are usually full of ambitions, luxury and hectic activities.

Stanzas xx and xx1 convey the efforts to perpetuate the memory of the dead rustics. To protect the bodily remains of these people from insult a 'frail memorial' has been erected which has been decorated with 'uncouth rhymes' written by some illiterate poet in their memory and with 'shapeless sculpture'. This memorial reminds one of these dead people, produces feelings of pity and sympathy in one's heart, and inspires the passer's by to pay a tearful tribute to them. The illiterate muse or stone cutter poet has engraved their names, years of birth and death and the text of Bible that teach them to accept death gracefully.

This brings us to the end of the first part of the movement of the poem. The second part may be said to consist of stanzas xx11 - xxx11. "The double irony of man's existence is exposed in an antithesis which divides the poem into nearly equal parts -- the first part (stanza 1-21) governed by the concept of the skeleton beneath the skin, and the second (stanzas 22-32) governed by the voice of life crying out of the ashes of the dead."

Stanzas xx11 and xx111 express the dead men's nostalgic feeling for the world and their desire to be remembered and honoured after their death. Nobody wants to leave this world as a prey to 'dumb forgetfulness'. Nobody goes away from this world without desiring to be remembered after death and without casting one longing lingering look behind. The dying man desires some dear person to shed tears on his death as a mark of mourning. Even from his grave, the dead man desires to be remembered with love and sympathy. Even in the ashes of the dead man, there are the sparks of a craving for love and sympathy of his fellow beings, which is natural in man. These two stanzas nicely depict a man's desire for the perpetuation of his memory after his death.

Stanzas xx1v - xx1x describe the fate of the poet himself or of the speaker. The person addressed to in these stanzas may be an imaginary person or an actual poet with whom Gray may have been acquainted during his stay at Stoke Poges or Gray himself. He relates the 'artless tale' about the 'unhonoured dead' in this poem. Someday some wayfarer may come, and enquire about his fate. Then some old peasant will tell this wayfarer (some kindered spirit) that he had usually seen the poet at dawn rushing towards the upland so as to reach there before sunrise. There beneath the beech, he would lie down and keep looking at the murmuring stream. He would wander there muttering crazily as if he were alone and full of anxieties or had felt frustration in love. The old peasant would further tell they wayfarer that one day he did not find the poet on his favourite spot. Nor was he there the next day. The following day his body was seen being carried away towards the churchyard where he was burried. The peasant would ask the wayfarer to approach the poet's grave and read the epitaph engraved on it.

Thus death seems to have overpowered the poet whom was writing about the death of the rustic forefathers of the village and pointing out their desire to be remembered after death. The similar desire of the poet is fulfilled by the engraving of the Epitaph on the grave. In these stanzas preceeding the Epitaph, Lyly Glazier finds "a note of mawkish self-pity, which lends weight to the belief that Gray wrote this poem in a fit of self commiseration to find consolation for the world's neglect."

The last three stanzas of the poem (xxx-xxx11) constitute the Epitaph supposed to have been engraved on the grave of the poet speaker. The poet speaker, referred to in the Epitaph as 'A youth to fortune and fame unknown', may be Gray's friend Richard West in whose memory the Elegy is said to have been written, or Gray himself, or some imaginary rustic stone cutter poet. His identity is a matter of controversy among critics. According to James Sutherland, the narrator of the poem and the subject of the Epitaph "are the same person and that person is described as an educated young gentleman, not as an unlettered village stone cutter."

The Epitaph describes an obscure youth of humble birth and melancholic nature. This youth was unknown to fortune and fame, but he acquired much knowledge and learning. He was very sincere and generous. His life was full of misery and sorrow; but God recompensed him for his gifts, in the form of a friend. The concluding four lines of the Epitaph advise the reader not to ask to disclose or discuss his merits or his weaknesses. Both these are of no consequence now that he has resigned himself to God, whose grace he hopes to receive in the end.

The Epitaph is said by critics like Prof. Shepard to have been written as a separate poem on Richard West, and later to have been joined to the poem so as to seem to form an integral part of it. It carries a strong personal note, and may have been written about Gray himself in anticipation of his death. D C Tovey is of the opinion that the Epitaph "is unquestionably the weakest part of the poem, and was, perhaps written about 1742, and inserted in the Elegy as an after thought." According to Oliver Elton the Epitaph "is usually felt to be a drop .... into his more factitious style."

The Epitaph may have been a separate poem or may have been inserted later into the body of the Elegy: but its importance cannot be doubted. According to Cleanth Brooks "the Epitaph is not to be judged in isolation. It is part of a context, and a very rich context. We have to read it in terms of the conditions of certain dramatic propriety which the context sets up." Discarding the view of Landor, which holds the Epitaph to be "a tin kettle tied to the tail of the poem", Frank H Ellis remarks that the Epitaph is actually the conclusion of a very tightly organised rhetorical structure. It supplies perspective and sympathy for the character whose life illustrates everything the poem has to say." So it may be said that the poem ends fittingly with the Epitaph which is not out of tune with the harmonious whole.

Critical Appreciation

The Elegy is one of the greatest and finest of Gray's poems and marks a stage in the development of his poetic genius. It reveals a growing democratic sentiment and romantic mood of the poet. Instead of confining himself to the saloons, coffee houses or the fashionable society of the town, Gray undertakes in this poem to deal with the life of the rustic people of the village, to present the 'short and simple annals of the poor'. Wit its lyricism, its treatment of nature, its melancholic mood and its emotional and imaginative vigour, the Elegy reveals a romantic spirit and marks a shift from the neoclassical poetry of the Augustan age, towards the Romantic poetry of the coming age. It is essentially transitional in character and ushers in the era of romanticism.

Universal Appeal: There is little originality or novelty of thought or sentiment expressed in the Elegy. It expresses the feeling for the common man, which everybody has. The poet's views about death as an inevitable fact of life, are quite common. The presentation of the contrast between the destiny of the rich and the poor, is based on conventional views. The thought about fame and obscurity, human ambition and pride are quite old too. The Elegy abounds in what Tennyson calls 'divine truisms that make us weep'. However, Gray has lent great force to these common thoughts and truisms through his unique expression that they have become universally appealing. The universal appeal of the poem is an important source of its greatness and popularity. The commonest man finds the Elegy echoing his own feelings and sentiments. The poem transcends the limits of time and place, and appeals to people everywhere and in all times.

Originality: Despite its treatment of common themes and sentiments, the poem is not totally devoid of originality. Dr. Johnson acknowledges the originality of the four stanzas beginning 'yet even these bones'. Gray's originality and individual talent may be seen in his condensed expression of great ideas in highly quotable phrases like " Full many a flower blush to die unseen" and "On some fond breast the parting soul relies". Herbert W Starr points out " probably no other poem of the same length has contributed so many famous phrases to our language." Gray's originality also lies in the fact that he raised the voice of democratic sympathy much before the French or the American revolution, aiming at the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity, had taken place. He may be said to have inspired the democratic sentiments of Wordsworth who, much later, wrote about poor rustics like Michael, the leech gatherer and the wagoner. Carl J Webber remarks "Thomas Gray is the pioneer literary spokesman for the ordinary man, the patron saint of the unknown soldier... . Gray's rude forefathers were also the forefathers of Wordsworth's Wagoner, Michael and Peterbell."

Gray's originality also lies in his treatment of the non fulfillment of the desires of common man and the non utilisation of his powers and talents because of lack of proper opportunities. The poem may be called an elegy on the premature death of the talents and energies of the poor. Another mark of Gray's originality is, that instead of addressing it to the rich, great or privileged men, he addresses this poem about common man to common men and seeks to elicit a sympathetic response for their common lot. The adoption of the elegiac quatrain in place of the conventional heroic couplet and the novel use of abstract personifications also reveal Gray's originality.

Humanity & Democratic Sentiments: The Elegy is remarkable for its humanity and its concern for the lot of common human beings on this earth. It may be put alongwith Keats's Ode to a Nightingale, which deals with the lot of man on this earth. Although it hints at the inevitability of the end of all human glory and the futility of power, wealth, ambition and pride, it is mainly concerned with the destiny of the common man and seems to lament the loss and waste of so much talent and energy of the poor because of lack of opportunity. A note of exultation may also be found in Gray's view that if poverty proved hinderance in the way of the advancement of the common rustic people, it also restrained them from doing evil and practising violence to gain material ends.

The democratic note may be found in the poem in the form of idea of equality and helplessness of both the rich and the poor before death. Death is a great leveller. If it deprives the poor of the opportunities ton rise, it also mercilessly snatches the power and the glory of the rich. Both alike await the inevitable hour of death and both feel helpless to do anything. The vanity of human wishes and aspirations has been nicely pointed out in the poem. The distinction between the lives of the rich and the poor is thus obliterated by death.

Melancholic Note: The Elegy is characterised by a melancholic note. The dominant mood of the poem is one of gloom and sadness. The shadow of death hovers throughout the poem and the regret over the frustration of human efforts and hopes is inherent in its tone. The opening scene of the poem is steeped in melancholy and the musings on human destiny in the later parts are also of melancholic nature. The description of the rustic poet also gives a gloomy picture of his life. Thus, the whole atmosphere and mood of the poem is tinged with melancholy. According to W V Moody and R M Lovett the Elegy "is the finest flower of that literature of melancholy Which Gray may be said to be haunted by a Hamlet like melancholy and sense of frustration. The thirty two stanzas of the poem embody almost all the emotions and reflections that a man commonly feels in the presence of death.

Personal & Autobiographical Element: Besides being an expression of general or universal feelings and sentiments, and dealing with the lot of the common man, the Elegy contains some autobiographical or personal elements. It deals with the life, destiny and anticipated death of the poet himself. He was, as Gray shows in the Elegy, a man of melalancholy and wayward disposition, who lived a secluded life 'far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.' He was, as he tells in the Epitaph, of humble birth and lived a life of obscurity and seclusion. In spite of his birth in a poor family, he had acquired much knowledge and learning but remained unknown of fame and fortune. He was sincere and had great gifts of mind and heart. Living a melancholic life, he faced much misery and had to shed tears frequently.

Unlike the neo classical poetry, the Elegy deals with the poet's personal feelings and reflects his own mood like romantic poetry. In the original draft of the poem, consisting of twenty two stanzas, quantity of personal references was less than what it is in the expanded version.

Moral Tone: The Elegy is didactic in nature and seeks to convey certain morals about human life. Gray exhorts the proud and ambitious people not to laugh at the simple life and obscure destiny of the poor. He tells them that they are much like the poor that they also have to die one day and leave all their glory, wealth and luxuries in this world. The poem lays emphasis on the transitoriness of all human glory and the emptiness of all boasts of power and wealth. It also points out the inevitability of death. Gray seems to impress upon us the idea that being poor is not altogether a matter of misfortune. The poor are fortunate in that they do not have to shut the gates of mercy on their fellow beings as the great men have to do.

Technical Beauties: The Elegy is remarkable for its simplicity of expression, and Gray says in it plainly what he has to say. There is nothing in the poem which can be called extraordinary but there is what I A Richards terms "that triumph of an exquisitely adjusted tone." The poet gives a perfect expression to his feelings and sentiments. Several critics tend to criticise the Elegy on account of its common places and truisms. These common places are good and have what Graham Hough believes to be 'their compulsive force'. In them, Gray has generalised his personal views and reflections. According to Hough "they are compelling because they are not only what they first appear, majestic statements about the common lot: they are also the solution of Gray's personal problem, and perhaps the only one possible in his day."

The Elegy possesses qualities like the stately measure of its verse, and the wonderful felicity and perfection of its style. It contains the neoclassical qualities like allusiveness, alliteration, personification and a dignified manner. The Elegy has not the delicate shadowiness of 'Ode to Evening' and its monumental style and weight of thinking seem beyond Collins. The verse of the Elegy is polished and musical and has a haunting quality.

The reflections on life and death make the Elegy a philosophical poem but it is also a sort of dramatic monologue in which the speaker has addressed imaginary readers or listeners. The poem is a formalised composition and has a rhetorical condensed expression. Historically speaking, the Elegy marks a shift from the neo classicism of the 18th century to the romanticism of the early 19th century. It foreshadows the romantic poetry of Burns, Wordsworth, Shelley and others.

Despite its melancholic tone and its harping on the transitoriness of human glory, it would be difficult to agree with Lyly Glazier's view about the Elegy that "the net effect of the whole poem is negative and fatalistic." We may find the positive effect of the poem in the fact that it does not glorify death. It lays emphasis on a desire for immortality signified by the desire to be remembered or to perpetuate human by memorials.

It presents a faithful account of the human condition on this earth, and if that condition turns out to be gloomy, Gray is not to be blamed for this. To him goes the credit for pointing out not only the obscurity of life of the poor, but also their good luck in having escaped, through death, the acts of cruelty and violence that they might have committed had they lived longer.

The Elegy is certainly a great poem. Its universal appeal, its humanity and its broader concern with the human condition are as much contributive to its greatness as its poetic merits. Different factors may be said responsible for its greatness. To conclude it may suffice to quote Douglas Bush who has nicely summed up its greatness, he remarks, "one obvious reason is power of style which makes almost every line an example of 'what oft was thought but never so well expressed.' Images, though generalised, can be nonetheless evocative. The antitheses are more than antitheses; they are a succession of dynamic and ironic contrast between ways and views of life. And all this inward force comes from a full sensibility working under precise control. In its combination of personal attachment and involvement, as well as in its generalise texture, the Elegy is in some sense an 18th century Lycidas."