"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

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Go	Notes			Line	Text
	T	E	T/E		"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
	T	E	T/E	1	The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
	T	E	T/E	2	The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
		E		3	The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
		E		4	And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
		E		5	Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
	T	E	T/E	6	And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
	T	E	T/E	7	Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
	T	E	T/E	8	And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;
		E		9	Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
		E		10	The moping owl does to the moon complain
	T	E	T/E	11	Of such, as wandering near her secret bower,
	T	E	T/E	12	Molest her ancient solitary reign.
		E		13	Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
		E		14	Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
		E		15	Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,
	T	E	T/E	16	The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
	T	E	T/E	17	The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,
	T	E	T/E	18	The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed,
	T	E	T/E	19	The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
	T	E	T/E	20	No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
		E		21	For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
	T	E	T/E	22	Or busy housewife ply her evening care:
		E		23	No children run to lisp their sire's return,
	T	E	T/E	24	Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.
	T			25	Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
		E		26	Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
	T	E	T/E	27	How jocund did they drive their team afield!
		E		28	How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!
	T	E	T/E	29	Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
	T	E	T/E	30	Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
		E		31	Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
		E		32	The short and simple annals of the poor.
		E		33	The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
		E		34	And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
	T	E	T/E	35	Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
	T	E	T/E	36	The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
	T	E	T/E	37	Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault,
	T	E	T/E	38	If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise,
	T	E	T/E	39	Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault
		E		40	The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
		E		41	Can storied urn or animated bust
		E		42	Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
	T	E	T/E	43	Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
	T	E	T/E	44	Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
		E		45	Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
		E		46	Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
	T	E	T/E	47	Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
		E		48	Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.
	T	E	T/E	49	But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
	T	E	T/E	50	Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll;
	T	E	T/E	51	Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
	T	E	T/E	52	And froze the genial current of the soul.
	T	E	T/E	53	Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
	T	E	T/E	54	The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
	T	E	T/E	55	Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
	T	E	T/E	56	And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
	T	E	T/E	57	Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast
	T	E	T/E	58	The little tyrant of his fields withstood;
	T	E	T/E	59	Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
	T	E	T/E	60	Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
		E		61	The applause of listening senates to command,
		E		62	The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
		E		63	To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
		E		64	And read their history in a nation's eyes,
	T	E	T/E	65	Their lot forbade: nor circumscribed alone
	T	E	T/E	66	Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
		E		67	Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
	T	E	T/E	68	And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,
	T	E	T/E	69	The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,
		E		70	To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
	T	E	T/E	71	Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride
	T	E	T/E	72	With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.
		E		73	Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
	T	E	T/E	74	Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
		E		75	Along the cool sequestered vale of life
	T	E	T/E	76	They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
		E		77	Yet even these bones from insult to protect
		E		78	Some frail memorial still erected nigh,
	T	E	T/E	79	With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked,
		E		80	Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
		E		81	Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse,
	T	E	T/E	82	The place of fame and elegy supply:
		E		83	And many a holy text around she strews,
	T	E	T/E	84	That teach the rustic moralist to die.
		E		85	For who to dumb Forgetfulness a prey,
		E		86	This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned,
		E		87	Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
		E		88	Nor cast one longing lingering look behind?
		E		89	On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
	T	E	T/E	90	Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
		E		91	Ev'n from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
	T	E	T/E	92	Ev'n in our ashes live their wonted fires.
	T	E	T/E	93	For thee, who mindful of the unhonoured dead
	T	E	T/E	94	Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;
	T	E	T/E	95	If chance, by lonely Contemplation led,
	T			96	Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,
	T	E	T/E	97	Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
	T	E	T/E	98	"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
	T	E	T/E	99	Brushing with hasty steps the dews away
	T	E	T/E	100	To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.
	T	E	T/E	101	"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech
		E		102	That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,
		E		103	His listless length at noontide would he stretch,
		E		104	And pore upon the brook that babbles by.
	T	E	T/E	105	"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
	T	E	T/E	106	Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove,
	T	E	T/E	107	Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,
		E		108	Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.
	T	E	T/E	109	"One morn I missed him on the customed hill,
	T	E	T/E	110	Along the heath and near his favourite tree;
		E		111	Another came; nor yet beside the rill,
	T	E	T/E	112	Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;
	T			113	"The next with dirges due in sad array
	T	E	T/E	114	Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne.
	T	E	T/E	115	Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay,
	T	E	T/E	116	Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn."
					The Epitaph
		E		117	Here rests his head upon the lap of earth
		E		118	A youth to fortune and to fame unknown.
		E		119	Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth,
		E		120	And Melancholy marked him for her own.
	T	E	T/E	121	Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
		E		122	Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
		E		123	He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
		E		124	He gained from Heaven ('twas all he wished) a friend.
		E		125	No farther seek his merits to disclose,
	T	E	T/E	126	Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
	T	E	T/E	127	(There they alike in trembling hope repose)
		E		128	The bosom of his Father and his God.

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• [BrJ_1903] The Poetical Works of Thomas Gray: English and Latin. Edited with an introduction, life, notes and a bibliography by John Bradshaw. Reprinted edition. The Aldine edition of the British poets series. London: George Bell and sons, 1903 [1st edition 1891].
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• [EpW_1959] Poems of Thomas Gray. Edited by W. C. Eppstein. London and Glasgow: Blackie & Son Ltd., 1959.
• [F/G_1999] Eighteenth-Century Poetry. An Annotated Anthology. Edited by David Fairer and Christine Gerrard. Blackwell annotated anthologies. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
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• [LoR_1969] The Poems of Thomas Gray, William Collins, Oliver Goldsmith. Edited by Roger Lonsdale. Longman Annotated English Poets Series. London and Harlow: Longmans, 1969.
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• [ToD_1922] Gray's English Poems, Original and Translated from the Norse and Welsh. Edited by Duncan C. Tovey. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1922 [1st ed. 1898].