Course Hero. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Study Guide." Course Hero. 1 Nov. 2019. Web. 30 Nov. 2020. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Elegy-Written-in-a-Country-Churchyard/>.
In text
(Course Hero)
APA
Bibliography
Course Hero. (2019, November 1). Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved November 30, 2020, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Elegy-Written-in-a-Country-Churchyard/
In text
(Course Hero, 2019)
Chicago
Bibliography
Course Hero. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Study Guide." November 1, 2019. Accessed November 30, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Elegy-Written-in-a-Country-Churchyard/.
Footnote
Course Hero, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Study Guide," November 1, 2019, accessed November 30, 2020, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Elegy-Written-in-a-Country-Churchyard/.
Overview
Author
Thomas Gray
Year Published
1751
Type
Poem
Genre
Nature, Philosophy, Religion
Perspective and Narrator
The poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is written from the perspective of a speaker who describes the churchyard and meditates on the dead buried there and on death itself.
Tense
The poet makes use of several tenses in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": present to describe the graveyard, past to describe the dead, and future to imagine later visitors' thoughts.
About the Title
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" reflects a shift from the classical elegiac tradition toward the metaphysical meditation found in modern elegiac poetry. The speaker, standing in a country churchyard, memorializes the dead rather than one specific person.
This study guide for Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard offers summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs.
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