ElegyWritteninaCountryChurchyard赏析
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. Giles, in the small town of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in southern England. 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 file in 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 P ART 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
a The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
b The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
a The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
b And 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。guatemala
5. Stanza Form: Heroic Quatrain英雄体四⾏诗
A stanza with the above-mentioned characteristics —four lines, iambic pentameter,
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 ou
t 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.poke
(4) Beetle: winged inct that occurs in more than 350,000 varieties. One type is the firefly, or lightning bug.
(5) Wheels: verb meaning flies in circles.
(6) Droning: humming; buzzing; monotonous sound.
(7) Drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds: This clau apparently refers to the gentle sounds made by a bell around the neck of a castrated male sheep that leads other sheep. A castrated male sheep is called a wether. Such a sheep with a bell around its neck is called a bellwether. Folds is a noun referring to flocks of sheep.
(8) Tinklings: onomatopoeia.
Stanza 3
9. Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r
10. The moping owl does to the moon complain
11. Of such, as wand'ring near her cret bow'r,
12. Molest her ancient solitary reign.
服装库存处理Notes
(1) Save: except.
(2) Yonder: distant; remote.
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(3) Ivy-mantled: cloaked, dresd, or adorned with ivy.
(4) Moping: gloomy; grumbling.
(5) Of such: of anything or anybody.
(6) Bow'r: bower, an enclosure surrounded by plant growth—in this ca, ivy.
(7) Molest her ancient solitary reign: bother the owl while it keeps watch over the churchyard and countryside.
(8) Her ancient solitary rein: metaphor comparing the owl to a queen.
Stanza 4
13. Beneath tho rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
14. Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
15. Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
16. The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. Notes
(1) Where heaves the turf: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (the turf heaves).
(2) Mould'ring: mouldering (British), moldering (American), an adjective meaning decaying, crumbling.
(3) Cell: metaphor comparing a grave to a prison cell.
(4) Rude: robust; sturdy; hearty; stalwart.
(5) Hamlet: village.
Stanza 5
17. The breezy call of incen-breathing Morn,
18.The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed,
19. The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
20. No more shall rou them from their lowly bed.
Notes
(1) Breezy call of incen-breathing Morn: wind carrying the pleasant smells of morning, including dewy grass and flowers. Notice that Morn is a metaphor comparing it to a living creature. (It calls and breathes.)
(2) Swallow: Inct-eating songbird that likes to perch.
(3) Clarion: cock-a-doodle-doo.
(4) Echoing horn: The words may refer to the sound made by a fox huntsman who blows a copper horn to which pack hounds respond.
Stanza 6
21. For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
22. Or busy houwife ply her evening care:
23. No children run to lisp their sire's return,
24. Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.
Notes
(1) hearth . . . houwife . . . her: alliteration.
(2) Climb his knees the envied kiss to share: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (to share the envied kiss).
Stanza 7
25. Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
26. Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
27. How jocund did they drive their team afield!
28. How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
Notes
(1) Sickle: Harvesting tool with a handle and a crescent-shaped blade. Field hands swing it from right to left to cut down plant growth.
(2) Furrow: channel or groove made by a plow for planting eds.
(3) Glebe: earth.
(4) Jocund: To maintain the meter, Gray us an adjective when the syntax call for an adverb, jocundly. Jocund (pronounced JAHK und) means
cheerful.
Stanza 8
29. Let not Ambition mock their uful toil,
30. Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
31. Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
32. The short and simple annals of the poor.
Notes
(1) Ambition: Personification referring to the desire to succeed or to ambitious people eking lofty goals.
(2) Destiny obscure: the humble fate of the common people; their unheralded deeds.
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(3) Lines 29-30: anastrophe, a figure of speech that inverts the normal word order (let not Ambition obscure their destiny and homely joys).
(4) Grandeur: personification referring to people with wealth, social standing, and power.
(5) Annals: historical records; story.
考研政治冲刺Stanza 9
33. The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,
34. And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
35. Awaits alike th' inevitable hour.
36. The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Notes
(1) Boast of heraldry: Proud talk about the aristocratic or noble roots of one's family; snobbery. Heraldry was a science that traced family lines of royal and noble personages and designed coats of arms for them.
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(2) Pomp: ceremonies, rituals, and splendid surroundings of nobles and royals.
(3) Pomp of pow'r: alliteration.
(4) E'er: ever. General meaning of stanza: Every person—no matter how important, powerful, or wealthy—ends up the same, dead.
Stanza 10
37. Nor you, ye proud, impute to the the fault,
38. If Mem'ry o'er their tomb no trophies rai,
39. Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
40. The pealing anthem swells the note of prai.
Notes
(1) Impute: Assign, ascribe.
(2) Mem'ry: Memory, a personification referring to memorials, commemorations, and tributes —including statues, headstones, and epitaphs —ud to prerve the memory of important or privileged people.
(3) Where thro' . . . the note of prai: Reference to the interior of a church housing the tombs of important people. Fretted vault refers to a carved or ornamented arched roof or ceiling.
(4) Pealing anthem may refer to lofty organ music.
Stanza 11
41. Can storied urn or animated bust
42. Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
43. Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
44. Or Flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Notes
(1) Storied urn: Va adorned with pictures telling
a story. Urns have sometimes been ud to hold the ashes of a cremated body.
gangbanged(2) Bust: sculpture of the head, shoulders, and chest of a human.
(3) Storied urn . . . breath? Can the soul (fleeting breath) be called back to the body (mansion) by the urn or bust back? Notice that urn and bust are personifications that call.
(4) Can Honour's . . . Death? Can honor (Honour's voice) attributed to the dead person cau that person (silent dust) to come back to life? Can flattering words (Flatt'ry) about the dead person make death more "bearable"?
(5) General meaning of stanza: Lines 41-45 continue the idea begun in Lines 37-40. In other words, can any memorials—such as the trophies mentioned in Line 38, the urn and bust mentioned in Line 41, and personifications (honor and flattery) mentioned in Lines 43 and 44—bring a person back to life or make death less final or fearsome?
Stanza 12
45. Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
46. Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
47. Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,想学盘发
48. Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.
wazeNotes
(1) Pregnant with celestial fire: Full of great ideas, abilities, or goals (celestial fire).
(2) Rod of empire: scepter held by a king or an emperor during ceremonies. One of the humble country folk in the cemetery might have become a king or an emperor if he had been given the opportunity.
(3) Wak'd . . .lyre: Played beautiful music on a lyre,
a stringed instrument. In other words, one of the people in the cemetery could have become a great musician if given the opportunity, "waking up" the notes of the lyre.
Stanza 13
