Lesson 6.07: The Graveyard Poet

You have seen where the seven sections are divided in the poem.  Now, provide a descriptive explanation how this can be seen in the poem.  Choose one section of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” explicateto analyze in order to reveal its meaning.  Section 1 will serve as an example, so you may not use it.

For example, you will begin like this:

In Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” the speaker in stanzas 1 -3 discusses the time and setting.  “The curfew tolls the knell of the parting day,” suggests that evening  is nearing as the cattle, or “lowing herd” make their way back to the pasture and the farmer goes back home.  The speaker is left by himself, “and leaves the world to darkness and to me” ; however, Gray has personified the beetle with  “wheels his droning flight” and the owl “moping” and complaining to the moon to deliver the melancholysad, gloomy, or depressed feeling.  The speaker may not be able to see anything in the dark, but he can hear everything, which is a great sensory detail to provide to the reader.  Therefore, the setting leaves the readers feeling a little compassion towards the lonely speaker.

After you have written your explication of your section of stanzas for Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” submit it to the 6.07 Poem Explication Dropbox. View the 6.07 Poem Analysis Rubric for guidance.

For this assignment, you will create an epitaphan inscription on a tombstone for one of the deceased characters you’ve studied this term.  You could choose one of the sailors from Gulliver’s Travels, Beowulf, Macbeth, etc.  You decide.  It doesn’t matter if the character was major or minor.

Your epitaph should capture the attributes of your character, so make sure you use imagery.

Follow the rhyme scheme in Gray’s poem, which is a, b, a, b.

You should have three stanzas with four lines in each stanza.  Yes, your epitaph should be twelve lines.

View a few student examples of epitaphs from Characters of the play Hamlet.

You will be assessed based on the 6.07 Epitaph Rubric.

For extra credit (10 extra points), you can design the tombstone.  When you are finished, submit your final epitaph to 6.07 Epitaph Dropbox.