Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard By Thomas Gray Analysis Essay

Poem "Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard By Thomas Gray"

In poetry, the tone of the poem denotes the voice that the poem is read in. The tone can be sad, sinister, or angry. The tone of the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray" is sad and somber. The mood on the other hand is the overall feeling of a poem and is created by the tone of the poem. The mood in this poem is sorrowful and solemn.

The tone of the poem is sad and somber. The author uses a sad tone to in talk of how people run after power wealth and beauty and shows the vanity of these things. This tone can also be seen as a somber one. The author uses the sad and somber tone to show that no matter how powerful, how rich, and how good a person he is, he will still die one day. He also uses the mood to show the same thing.

The mood of the poem in lines 29-44 is sorrowful and solemn. The author is sorrowful about how people lead their lives to the path of destruction and death by being blindly ambitions, by looking for wealth and accomplishments (line 29-31).

In line (33-36), the author devalues things like power, beauty, and wealth, which most people think are important. He says that all these are temporary and will be meaningless when death comes their way. The poet reasons (37) that riches will not be placed on their tomb and that sweet tunes or praise cannot awake the dead.

In the last line 41-44 the author wonders aloud what can change our encounter with destiny, the praises of the living cannot stop the expiry of our last breath (line 42), or the voices of the honorable people apiece the grave. He ponders if flattery can soothe the ear of death to stop in its mission (44).

In conclusion, the author is solemn about people altitude towards this life. He is concerned that they value their earthly possession and forgets that all these are short lived. He seems to suggest that people should prepare themselves for the life after death.

Work Cited

Gray, T. (1751). An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard (pp. 61-5). R. Dodsley; and sold.