Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
By Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
1. Type of Work
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is—as the title indicates—an elegy. Such a poem centers on the death of a person or persons and is, therefore, somber in tone. An elegy is lyrical rather than narrative—that is, its primary purpo is to express feelings and insights about its subject rather than to tell a story. Typically, an elegy express feelings of loss and sorrow while also praising the decead and commenting on the meaning of the decead's time on earth. Gray's poem reflects on the lives of humble and unheralded未为人所知的people buried in the cemetery 墓地of a church.
2. Setting （time and place）
The time is the mid 1700s, about a decade before the Industrial Revolution began in England. The place is the cemetery of a church. Evidence indicates that the church is St. Gi
les, in the small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in southern Engla逃跑计划乐队
nd. Gray himlf is buried in that cemetery. William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, once maintained a manor 领地hou at Stoge Poges.
3. Years of Composition and Publication
Gray began writing the elegy in 1742, put it aside for a while, and finished it in 1750. Robert Dodsley published the poem in London in 1751. Revid or altered versions of the poem appeared in 1753, 1758, 1768, and 1775. Copies of the various versions are on the Thomas Gray Archive at Oxford University.
4. Meter 节拍and Rhyme 韵律Scheme
Gray wrote the poem in four-line stanzas (quatrains). Each line is in iambic pentameter, meaning the following:
1. Each line has five pairs of syllables for a total of ten syllables.
2. In each pair, the first syllable is unstresd (or unaccented), and the cond is stresd (or accented), as in the two lines that open the poem:
The CUR few TOLLS the KNELL of PART ing DAY
The LOW ing HERD wind SLOW ly O'ER the LEA
In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the third and the cond line rhymes with the fourth (abab), as follows:
aThe curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
bThe lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
aThe plowman homeward plods his weary way,
bAnd leaves the world to darkness and to me.
晚钟响起来一阵阵给白昼报丧，
牛群在草原上迂回，吼声起落，
耕地人累了，回家走，脚步踉跄，
把整个世界给了黄昏与我。
5. Stanza Form: Heroic Quatrain英雄体四行诗
A stanza with the above-mentioned characteristics — four lines, iambic pentameter, and an abab rhyme scheme — is often referred to as a heroic quatrain. (Quatrain is derived from the Latin word quattuor, meaning four.) William Shakespeare and John Dryden had earlier ud this stanza form. After Gray's poem became famous, writers and critics also began referring to the heroic quatrain as an elegiac stanza.
6. Complete Poem With Explanatory Notes
Stanza 1
1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
2. The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
3. The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
4. And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Notes
(1) Curfew: ringing bell in the evening that reminded people in English towns of Gray’s time to put out fires and go to bed.
(2) Knell: mournful sound.
(3) Parting day: day's end; dying day; twilight; dusk.
(4) Lowing: mooing.
(5) O'er: contraction for over. (6) Lea: meadow.
Stanza 2
5. Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,
6. And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
7.Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
8. And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.
Notes
(1) Line 5: The landscape becomes less and less visible.
(2) Sight . . . solemn stillness . . . save: alliteration. (3) Save: except.
(4) Beetle: winged inct that occurs in more than 350,000 varieties. One type is the firefly, or lightning bug.
