Thoughts on Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

When poems discuss death or memories faded of those who've passed, I think therein comes a necessary requirement to reverence and reminisce instead of scorn and mock; once death occurs, there is a NO CROSSING zone in terms of belittling beyond the grave. I found that Thomas Gray has subtly given such a point of respect for the dead. His poem Elegy paints the imagery of not only a graveyard scene, but the emotions that are forever tied to funereal moments of mourning loved ones. Gray shows with words concise and powerful that the distinct sounds, many times ignored, become significant on the day of a loved one passing: "curfew tolls the knell of parting day ... Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight ... The moping owl does to the moon complain" (1, 7, 10). He basically tells of the movement of a beetle (clicking of its wings), the ring of a bell, the hoot of an owl, sounds that may be common place, yet are reminders of a day of tragedy. Those sounds memorialize and, as Gray is doing, give eulogy to the dead. My favorite lines:

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

These lines, although obvious in content--the dead will no longer be able to do those things they did in life--are beautiful reminders of the little things that make us human. The fire burning in the fireplace, the nightly tucking-in of the children, the children's excited welcome when father, mother, grandpa, or grandma arrive, and even the intimate and awkward first kiss.