Elegy

When I first read Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard I decided to try and mark with a dash my favorite stanzas to help me decide what to write about. I pretty much ended up with most of the stanzas marked. However, I am going to force myself to focus on two in particular.

I love in the ninth stanza when Gray discusses “boasts of heraldry” and “the pomp of power” and various other things of worldly importance. In the end though, he implies that these things do not matter because “The paths of glory lead but to the grave”. That being said, I think that it is less about how little the things of the world matter but the fact that everyone, rich or poor, famous or unknown, will die. It is an obvious statement but powerful when you really reflect upon it. So many humanistic differences, natural and unnatural, exist in this world. We all have our own individual life experiences and outlooks. In reality, the one thing that connects us all, that we will all share in, is death. And how poetic is it that it’s the one aspect of “life” that we probably all know the least about. We all, regardless of our education, live in the same relative ignorance, despite whatever hopes and beliefs we may have, about this event that eventually awaits us all.

One of my other favorite stanzas has already been mentioned but I love stanza twelve when Gray mentions the potential that existed for the humble people buried in the country churchyard. One could have had a brilliant mind with amazing abilities. Another person, with the proper development, could have ruled as a King. They all, had potential for greatness. They were simply never able to realize it because of their circumstances. I think that the poem has many ideas and themes (which is probably why it is so fascinating) but I love the reminder that circumstance, education, and even luck have so much to do with where we end up. That everyone, if given the opportunity, has potential for greatness.

For me the poem is so incredibly humanistic and interesting as Gray goes from stanza to stanza elegizing the common man and discussing these fascinating ideas about humans’ similarities, differences, and potentials. There are so many different paths in life (and we don’t always have as much choice as I think we like to pretend we do) but often it is the path that determines the outcome and not the traveler. And in the end, the different paths all eventually lead to the same place.