Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Brief Questions
PremiumWho wrote the poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”?
Answer: Thomas Gray wrote the poem.
What time of day is described at the beginning of the poem?
Answer: Evening time, when the day is ending.
What does the curfew bell symbolize?
Answer: It symbolizes the end of the day and also the end of life.
Who is the plowman in the poem?
Answer: A simple farmer going home after work.
What does the plowman’s return show?
Answer: It shows the peaceful end of a hardworking day.
Who “winds slowly o’er the lea”?
Answer: The herd of cattle.
Which bird complains from the tower?
Answer: The owl.
What does the owl symbolize?
Answer: Loneliness and the silence of death.
Where do the village forefathers sleep?
Answer: They sleep in their graves under the elm and yew trees.
What will never wake the dead villagers again?
Answer:
What kind of life did the dead villagers live? Answer: Simple, hardworking, honest lives. What did they often do with their sickles? Answer: They harvested crops. Why does the poet ask ambition not to mock them? Answer: Because their simple life also had value and dignity. What does the poet say about wealth and beauty? Answer: Wealth and beauty cannot escape death. What do “paths of glory” lead to? Answer: They lead to the grave. What is a “storied urn”? Answer: A decorated funeral vessel. Can a storied urn bring back the dead? Answer: No, it cannot. What does the poet compare hidden talents to? Answer: To gems hidden in deep-sea caves. Why did the villagers’ talents remain hidden? Answer: Because poverty and lack of education stopped them. Who might be lying in the village graves, according to the poet? Answer: Someone like Hampden, Milton, or Cromwell, but unknown. What kept the villagers away from great crimes? Answer: Their simple and limited life. What kept them away from great virtues? Answer: Lack of opportunity. How did the villagers live their lives? Answer: Quietly and peacefully, away from crowds. Why were simple tombstones made for them? Answer: To protect their memory from being forgotten. What does the poet say about Forgetfulness? Answer: No one leaves life without looking back with longing. Who may tell the poet’s story later? Answer: A hoary-headed old villager. Where did the poet often walk? Answer: Through the fields, hills, and near the brook. How did the villagers describe the poet? Answer: As quiet, thoughtful, sometimes sad or lost in love. What happens to the poet at last? Answer: He too is carried through the church path for burial. What does the Epitaph describe? Answer: A humble young man, unknown to fame, but sincere, kind, and peaceful in death.