Elegy in Churchyard

Elegy Written in a country churchyard ELEGY (WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD) By: Thomas Gray, 1716-1771 Thomas Gray’s Elegy laments the death of life in general while mourning long gone ancestors and exhibiting the transition made by the speaker, from grief and mourning to acceptance and hope. It was written in 1742 and revised to its published form in 1746, and is one of the three highlights of the elegiac form in English literature, the others …

…just as his will live on, helps to cope with the loss. Gray started the Elegy by presenting the reader with a dilemma. In this case that dilemma was How do I cope with my loss? By the end of the Elegy that dilemma was answered. The answer was that his friend will live on in his heart and later in his remains as supported by line 92: “...in our Ashes live their...fires”. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**