Page 43 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit
P. 43
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
by Thomas Gray, pages 19-22
Vocabulary
knell – to summon
droning – boring
hamlet – home
clarion – a medieval trumpet
ply – carry out
lisp – a speech impediment, slurred speech
glebe – soil
jocund – lighthearted
disdainful – scornful
annals – history books
impute – to assign to, credit
pealing – ringing
genial – friendly
circumscribed – confined
ignoble – shameful
sequester – isolate
uncouth – uncivilized
elegy – a poem of lament and sorrow
forlorn – sad
dirges – a funeral hymn
1. At what time of day does the poem take place?
The poem takes place at the “knell of a parting day,” or the evening.
2. To what sense does the second stanza appeal?
The second stanza appeals to the sense of sight.
3. Yew trees were often planted in cemeteries. What is the "narrow cell" referred to in line
15?
The “narrow cell” refers to the shallow graves, wherein the dead sleep.
4. What time of day is it in the fifth stanza?
The night has passed, and the time in the fifth stanza is the “morn.”
5. To whom is the speaker referring in lines 21-24?
The speaker is discussing the dead fathers whom he introduced in the previous stanzas. The
dead are spoken of as loving and beloved husbands and fathers.
T-25
