Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard
- Narrated by: Denis Daly
- Length: 17 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard
Buy Now for £5.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard
By Thomas Gray
Narrated by Denis Daly
Today Thomas Gray is remembered almost solely for this melancholy meditation on the inevitability of death and the insignificance of fame. Samuel Johnson thought little of Gray's other works, but found the Elegy to be "abounding with images which find a mirror in every mind and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo."
The poem was originally thought to have been inspired by the death of Gray's close friend, Richard West, but modern critics think this to be unlikely.
Retiring by nature, Gray did not want the elegy to be published, but his hand was forced by an unscrupulous editor who planned to publish the poem without permission.
The polished elegance of the versification and the inclusion of lines whose fame has become proverbial have ensured that the poem has retained its appeal over the centuries.