the distinct figures in it. He seems like a man with a candle out-of-doors in a windy night, carefully shielding the light. The light has burned on with a steady glow, and is likely to shed its kindly rays through many generations of lovers of English poetry. ELEGY, WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH YARD. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. THE significant title of this poem hints at the underlying theme, and accounts for the popularity which it has enjoyed from the start. If one considers that the great people of the parish were buried under the church itself, and the plain, mostly unlettered folk lay under the common turf outside, he will see that the poet here makes himself one of the undistinguished multitude. From the very first stanza Gray enlists the sympathy of all who toil, and at the same time leads the reader into that twilight land which is the home of reflective poetry. It would be interesting for one to read along with this poem Bryant's Thanatopsis, and see how in another way the American poet manages to connect death with nature. Gray, as has been pointed out, was a scholar, and at home in the great ancient classics as also in the English. Any one who chooses can find editions of the Elegy in which almost every line is referred to some other line of Greek, Latin, or English verse. To the casual reader of such an annotated edition, it would seeem as if the Elegy were a mere patchwork of other poets' phrases. More truly, Gray was so saturated with good poetry that when he wrote he used a language which had been formed on poetic reading; probably in most cases, he was quite unconscious that he was drawing upon classic or contemporaneous phrases. Since he was, however, an ardent admirer of Milton, some of the coincidences between his verse and Milton's have been pointed out in the notes. The notes, however, are of a purpose meagre. There is little that calls for explication. Yet the poem flows so limpidly that its ease is a little deceptive. One may miss delicate tones by the simplicity of the language, but it has not seemed to the editor that it is the best use to which notes can be put when they are made to supply the reader with ready-made appreciation. He would add that in his judgment the best criticism would come through a memorizing of the poem, and the best annotation through a per, fect vocal rendering. 10 ELEGY, WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCH YARD. THE curfew tolls the knell of parting day, Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 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, 15 Each in his narrow cell forever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. The breezy call of incense-breathing Morn, The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed, 1. Parting. Compare line 4 of Goldsmith's The Deserted Vil lage. 12. Reign, realm. The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 0 No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 25 Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, 30 Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield! How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke. Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, 85 Awaits alike th' inevitable hour. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 27. Drive their team afield. See Milton's Lycidas, line 27. 36. "For two full hours the procession of boats, borne on the current, steered silently down the St. Lawrence. The stars were visible, but the night was moonless and sufficiently dark. The general was in one of the foremost boats, and near him was a young midshipman, John Robison, afterwards professor of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He used to tell in his later life how Wolfe, with a low voice, repeated Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard to the officers about him. Probably it was to relieve the intense strain of his thoughts. Among the rest was the verse which his own fate was soon to illus rate, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave.' |