"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" - An Old Poem, a New Artwork

The elegy is a poetry form with roots in Classical Greece and Rome. It is a poem of loss and mourning, but it often ends with some sense of hope. Traditionally, it has three sections – lament, tribute, and consolation. Some of the best elegies have a musical sense about them; the elegies of the ancient Greeks were usually accompanied by the playing of lutes. 

The best-known elegy in contemporary times is one written some 280 years ago. It’s the best known because so many of us studied it in high school, and, for a long time, it was also a popular poem for students to memorize. Thomas Graypublished “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” about 1742 after a friend “leaked” a copy to a few others. It was immediately popular, even among Gray critics like Samuel Johnson. The surprise, perhaps, is that it remained popular for such a long period of time. 

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.