S. P. Dubey English Studies

  Elegy written in a Country Churchyard: Analysis                                                   Thomas Gray was the dominant poetic figure in the mid-18th century and a  precursor  of the  Romantic movement . He was b orn in 1716 in Cornhill, London. He was a poet and professor who is well-known for the poem  Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The poem  was inspired by the sudden passing of his friend Richard West. He entered Cambridge in 1734, although he didn’t much care for the studies. Rather, he preferred to spend his time reading and playing music. It was at Cambridge that he developed friendship with Horace Walpole who would later help him get his works published. In 1757, he was offered the post of ...

                                                             Stanza Wise Explanations   Stanzas 1 – 4       Text The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, The plowman homeward plods his weary way,  And leaves the world to darkness and to me.   Now fades the glimm’ring landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;   Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow’r The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such, as wand’ring near her secret bow’r, Molest her ancient solitary reign. Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mould’ring heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the ...