English 2610

These poets sure could pick a title. I know we're supposed to write about "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" but I just can't help mention "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes" which may be the longest title ever! I laughed when I read the title, and again as I read the poem, but the last lines seemed strangely poignant. Gray takes this sad/humorous little story of a cat trying to get a fish (a goldfish no less) and somehow leaves the reader understanding the fragileness of life. "One false step is ne'er retrieved" obviously applies to more than just the cat slipping into the water. But I still marvel at the eloquent words that convey the moral "Not all that tempts your wandering eyes and heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glisters, gold."
As for "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", it too was full of little gems of thought for me. And again, the language is just... excuse the my lack of creative language... so poetic. Growing up, there was a cemetary about 5 minutes from my house and I know it can't compare to the age of anything in Europe, but it does have some pretty old graves and sits ontop of a grassy hill. It's very picturesque and serene and it's what I had in my mind as I read Gray's poem. I liked to look at the gravestones, which contained little more than, as Gray said "their name, their years, spelt by th' unlettered muse, The place of fame and elegy supply" with "uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked". I would wonder as Gray did, what kind of person was actually burried here. "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Croomwell guiltless of his country's blood."