墓园挽歌

创作背景

此诗创作长达8年之久，最初是为了哀悼他在伊顿公学读书时的好友里查德 ·韦斯特，至少诗末所附的“墓志铭”是为他而作。但纵观全诗，其内容已经明显超越了对某个具体人物的哀思，而是通过对乡村一处墓地的描写，表达对下层默默无闻的人民的深切同情。对他们纯朴善良品质的赞扬，为他们没有机会施展天赋和才华而惋惜，同时也表现了对权贵、人间虚荣的蔑视和嘲讽，对大人物傲慢奢侈生活的谴责。

原文内容

The poem begins in a churchyard with a narrator who is describing his surroundings in vivid detail. The narrator emphasis both aural and visual nsations as he examines the area in relation to himlf:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea

The ploughman 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 cret bow'r,

Molest her ancient solitary reign. (lines 1–12)

As the poem continues, the narrator begins to focus less on the countryside and more on his immediate surroundings. His descriptions begin to move from nsations to his own thoughts about the dead. As the poem changes, the narrator begins to emphasi what is not prent in the scene; he contrasts an obscure country life with a life that is remembered. This contemplation provokes the narrator's thoughts on waste that comes in nature:

Full many a gem of purest ray rene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

Full many a flow'r is born to blush unen,

And waste its sweetness on the dert air.

Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

The applau of listening nates to command,

The threats of pain and ruin to despi,

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,

Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,

And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,

Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

With incen kindled at the Mu's flame. (lines 53–72)

The narrator focus on the inequities that come from death, obscuring individuals, while he begins to resign himlf to his own inevitable fate. As the poem ends, the narrator begins to deal with death in a direct manner as he discuss how humans desire to be remembered. As the narrator does so, the poem shifts and the first narrator is replaced by a cond who describes the death of the first:

For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead

Dost in the lines their artless tale relate;

If chance, by lonely contemplation led,

Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,

Oft have we en him at the peep of dawn

Brushing with hasty steps the dews away

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. (lines 93–100)

The poem concludes with a description of the poet's grave, over which the narrator is meditating, together with a description of the end of the poet's life:

There at the foot of yonder nodding beech

That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

His listless length at noontide would he stretch,

And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,

Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove,

Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,

Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;

Another came; nor yet beside the rill,

Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

The next with dirges due in sad array

Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.

Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,

Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn. (lines 101–116)

An epitaph is included after the conclusion of the poem. The epitaph reveals that the poet who grave is the focus of the poem was unknown and obscure. The poet was parated from the other common people becau he was unable to join with the common affairs of life, and circumstance kept him from becoming something greater:

Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,

And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

Heav'n did a recompen as largely nd:

He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,

He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

No farther ek his merits to disclo,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

(There they alike in trembling hope repo)

The bosom of his Father and his God. (lines 117–128)

The original conclusion from the earlier version of the poem promotes the view that humans should be resigned to the fact that we will die, which differs from the indirect, third person description in the final version:

The thoughtless World to majesty may bow

Exalt the brave, u0026 idolize Success

But more to Innocence their Safety owe

Than Power u0026 Genius e'er conspired to bless

And thou, who mindful of the unhonour'd Dead

Dost in the Notes thy artless Tale relate

By Night u0026 lonely contemplation led

To linger in the gloomy Walks of Fate

Hark how the sacred Calm, that broods around

Bids ev'ry fierce tumultous Passion ea

In still small Accents whisp'ring from the Ground

A grateful Earnest of eternal Peace

No more with Reason u0026 thylf at strife;

Give anxious Cares u0026 endless Wishes room

But thro' the cool quester'd Vale of Life

Pursue the silent Tenour of thy Doom.

艺术特色

这首诗充分体现了格雷的民主思想。由于贫困，农民不能发挥自己的才能，不能成为像弥尔顿John Milton 那样的文学家，像克伦威尔Oliver Cromwell 那样的政治家。但是从另一方面说，在他们身上没有“野心”，“傲慢”，“骄”“奢”和“谄媚”。他们虽然“贫瘠”，没有知识，但却有“德性”和“天良”，他们是自然本身。这样的思想和弥漫于全诗的感伤情调，使《墓园挽歌》Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750) 成为18 世纪后期感伤主义诗歌的典范之作。