significance of epitaph in Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
Introduction
Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, written in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem is an elegy in name but not in form. It uses a style similar to that of contemporary Odds, but it is a meditation after death and a remembrance after death. The poem argues that remembrance can be good and bad and the narrator feels comfortable thinking of the lives of obscure villagers buried in the church. Two views of the poem Stanzas and Elegy have reached the point of death separately. The first has a strong reaction to the death, but the final version has an epitaph that helps suppress the narrator’s fear of death. Epitaph in Elegy written in country churchyard is Importance. In the poem stanza 30, and lines 117-120 are ‘The epitaph’.
- Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
- A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
- Fair Science frown’d not on his humble birth,
- And Melancholy mark’d him for her own. (stanza 30, and lines 117-120)
Significance of epitaph in Country Churchyard
An epitaph is a phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone or an epitaph is a tribute to a dead person. The epitaph of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is often referred to by Gray himself, and he wonders what might have been written about him after his death.
In the Epitaph, Thomas Gray expresses his dissatisfaction with the way life and death collide on our planet. He referred to the planet as a place where individuals lived through a huge cycle known as life for the duration of their journey. Gray’s style is very interesting. The spoke of God and how there are certain things around him that are now just what life used to be known as weakness.
Gray speaks in contrast to the way this person was treated in a society that is symbolic of how people are treated as a whole and the loneliness and shallowness of people around the world. Gray probably knew someone who had died at a young age and had a traumatic effect on him, then he focused on dark and anxious times and epitaphs and cemeteries and writing about the beliefs of the gods and how they relate to life and death.
Thomas Gray’s the Epitaph shows how we deal with moral and social issues and how to warn us about one another and undermine our belief in the position between life and death in our society.
Significance of epitaph in Country Churchyard
However, the verse is usually misunderstood as an epitaph to an unknown poet. As a result, it is a puzzle. If it is related to Gray, it is extremely important as it proves that he is sympathetic to all the poor buried souls in the churchyard. He does not assert that he is superior to them, but that he is not equally vague. He, like them, was not born of destiny, which would mean a prominent position or a large sum.
However, he seems to be praising himself in his epitaph, he is honoring these common souls for their great though unrestricted life given if he continues to praise himself for his ambiguity, it is ironic, when he becomes a famous poet, whose work has been read for centuries. The Importance of the epitaph is that Gray is writing his own epitaph. He is reflecting on his own death which has probably not happened yet.
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