Graveyard Poetry and its Melancholic Meditation on the Journey of Life to Death

Graveyard poetry, or meditative melancholy, consists of 18th century English extended poems that meditate upon the transience of life and the consolation of an afterlife through funerary imagery.[1]

 

This essay aims to study three Graveyard poems commonly acknowledged as pioneers of the form, namely, The Grave by Edward Blair, Elegy written in the country churchyard, henceforth known as Elegy, by Thomas Gray, and Night Thoughts by Edward Young. The essay examines the journey of life to death, the central concern in Graveyard poetry, through the responses to death within the transient nature of life and the promise of everlasting life.

 

Meditative melancholy arose due to socio-cultural changes in 18th century England, such as the decline in printed sermons[2] due to the increasingly literate middle class, rising popularity of closet piety, and shift to other devotional literature[3]. A sense of melancholy pervaded the middle class as mortality rates were high[4] and disease was rampant.

 

Underscored by The Bills of Mortality[5], which recorded the details of the deceased during outbreaks of plague well into the 18th century, this period provided an impetus for poets to meditate upon the nature of mortality, manifesting in Graveyard poetry. Hence, the high mortality rate served as a catalyst for the development of Graveyard poetry.

 

Transient nature of life

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A dominant thematic idea in Graveyard poetry is responses to the transient nature of life. Each poet had different ideals; Young’s stark view was that human helplessness in the face of death can be eased through God’s liberation, while Blair's evangelistic message was that death without Faith is desolate. Meanwhile, Gray undercut perceived notions that human commemoration rather than God’s salvation can make the acceptance of death for the living and dying easeful.

 

Young, an Anglican priest[6], published Night Thoughts in 1742 and fleshed out Christian principles, influenced largely by Christian Deism, such as that Faith and Reason are necessary for moral salvation. Christian Deism, a theological movement that arose in prominence in the 18th century, in which “[thinkers] used reason to prove that clerical Christianity was wrong about God’s nature and the way God related to humanity”, was one one of primary Christian principles that influenced Young's work. His theological ideals, underscored by his anguished responses to several bereavements, resulted in his belief that man is powerless in death.

 

Human helplessness in death is presented through the extended personification of Nature, Time, and Death. Time is an all-powerful entity that carves a fixed path to death, yielding an “enormous scythe” (Young 1.156), and performing an “ample sweep” (Young 1.156) as she “strikes empires from the root” (Young 1.157). Time’s “scythe”, a weapon associated with the Grim Reaper, is imbued with human characteristics. Moreover, action verbs “sweep” and “strikes” denote swift action while “ample” and “empires” connote an expansive number of people, illustrating the immensity of Time’s power. Together with the aggressive portrayal of Time, Young describes “darts of agony” (Young 1.204) as piercing his heart, the metaphor of “darts” highlighting the magnitude of suffering that death has on the living.

 

Death is personified as an assertive figure who eliminates mortals’ power in death. She has a “restless iron tongue” (Young 1.172) that “calls daily for millions at a meal” (Young 1.173). The “tongue”, an organ associated with human consumption, and the metaphor of “meals” illustrate Death’s greed in taking lives. “Iron” imbues Death’s tongue with a cold quality through tactile imagery, reinforcing Death’s merciless attitude. Moreover, the enumeration of “daily” and “millions” highlights the enormity of death’s greed. Death’s “strong hand” (Young 2.34), an instrument of force, allows “no composition [to set] the prisoner free” (Young 2.35) as mortals are compared to “prisoner[s]” held captive, elucidating the lack of human agency while the absolute world “no” exemplifies man’s powerlessness in death.

 

The natural passage of time imposed upon humanity is described as “great Nature’s plan” (Young 2.167) that we “rave” and “wrestle” (Young 2.167) with. “Plan” highlights humanity’s invariable progression towards departure from Earth. The personification of Nature, the compulsory route to death, echoes sentiments about humanity’s futile struggle. The verb “rave” conveys humanity’s mental ineffectualness as they are incoherent in death, while “wrestle” illustrates human’s physical inadequacies in combating Nature. Young transmuted his feelings of anguish into a response towards the transient nature of life, articulating humanity’s helplessness.

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Night Thoughts elucidates human anguish and powerlessness in death that necessitates Faith and Reason for salvation while The Grave, the next poem to be discussed, presents the salvation of man through Faith alone without direct suffering of the living. Both poems are didactic; however, Night Thoughts emphasises the moral message bluntly, whilst The Grave alludes to the graveyard to derive its evangelistic morality.

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Blair’s The Grave, “a poem of the evangelical revival”[7] published in 1751, shows that if death occurs without Faith, it is desolate; it is another response to death within the transient nature of life. Blair, a Presbyterian minister, focusses on a Calvinistic viewpoint on death in a publically declarative manner. He used macabre imagery to reflect the Reformation tenet of Sola Fine, which preaches that moral salvation can be found by Faith alone[8].

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The Grave is used as a symbol aiding Blair’s didactic message that death without consolation is hopeless. In typical meditative verse tradition, the persona physically and metaphorically moves around a graveyard viewing gruesome scenes. The persona describes a “hollow tomb” (Blair 51) and an “open’d grave” (Blair 70). The “[hollowness]” and “[openness]” of the grave evokes a supernatural image as wailing seems to emanate from the exposed tomb.

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As the persona physically wanders around the graveyard, he ponders the nature of death through the symbol of the grave. He describes the grave as “invidious” (Blair 85) and “dull” (Blair 111), “invidious” connoting the unjust nature of death whilst “dull” explores the perception of death as a lusterless destination, building upon Blair’s overall message that death is dismal and without consolation.

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The symbols of the gravestones are accompanied by images of decay as the “vaults” are “misty” (Blair 18) with “mouldy damps and ropy slimes” (Blair 18). “Misty” implies the lack of visibility while “damps” and “slimes” are associated with degeneration, emphasising the darkness of death as Blair elaborates upon his cautionary message of death’s desolation without consolation.

 

The personification of “Nature” in The Grave and Night Thoughts is reimagined in different contexts to convey the darkness of death. “Nature” is described as “[running]” (Blair 374) and “[shuddering]” (Blair 374) at the soul’s vulnerability in death, imbuing “Nature” with human characteristics. The action verbs “run” and “shudder” are associated with terror, emphasising Nature’s dread of death as “men” are said to “shiver” at “nature apall’d” (Blair 10), a visible reaction toward death. Thus, Blair reflects the bleakness of death that comes without moral consolation from God in his presentation of Nature, his response towards the transience of life.

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Moving forward from Night Thoughts, a starkly didactic poem written in 1742 that remains distinct in suggesting that human anguish results in reconciliation with God, the form of Graveyard poetry evolved into a different kind in 1751; the privately contemplative Elegy, the next poem to be discussed, delivers its multi-faceted response on how the acceptance of death leads to moral salvation.

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Elegy published in 1751 illustrates that there can be an easeful acceptance of death for the deceased and the living through God’s salvation. Gray was influenced by classical ideas of memento mori[9], a reminder of man’s mortality as seen in the bible verse “in all thy works by mindful of thy last end and thou wilt never sin”[10], as well as commonly agreed upon ideas within Christian doctrines, such as “the confession of faith in Jesus Christ, not in unity of creed, doctrine or policy”[11].

 

The desolation of death becomes the incentive for mortal commemoration as means to preserve one’s soul. The poem begins with the idea of solace through commemoration but reaches the revelation that it is the steadfast belief in God’s salvation that is Gray’s true response to the transience of life.

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The personification of Nature within Elegy is used to at the start to convey the ostensible value of human commemoration in response to the desolation of death, while Nature in Night Thoughts and The Grave illustrates humanity’s powerlessness and dismal reality of death without consolation.

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The knowledge possessed by the living that life is ephemeral is seen through the personification of “Death” and “Nature” in relation to the villagers’ passing, as the persona roams the graveyard and ponders their death. “Death” has a “dull cold ear” (Blair 47); “cold” and “dull” use tactile imagery to convey the numbness of death. Moreover, “Nature” is said to “[cry]” (Blair 83), invoking images of wallowing, allowing man to understand the consequence of life snatched away from their tenuous frame. The personification of “Death” and “Nature” reiterates the desolation of death that initially provided impetus for humans to embrace permanent remembrance, aiding in Gray undermining perceived notions that human commemoration can make the acceptance of death easeful.

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The Grave and Night Thoughts are fixed in the persona’s experiences within the graveyard. In contrast, Elegy provides a dual presentation of the persona and dead villagers within the locale of the graveyard and an imaginary place, presenting similar responses of the dead and living towards accepting death. The living persona consciously uses pastoral imagery as a trigger for his private remembrance of the villagers. Visual and aural imagery of the “lowly [herd]” (Gray 1) and “distant folds” (Gray 8), associated with the rural agrarian lifestyle, catalyses his reverie of their blissful lives.

 

However, as the reader is momentarily lulled into the belief that human commemoration suffices for permanent preservation on Earth, Gray undercuts this belief through the physical movement of the poem. The persona responds to the setting and meditates on how human commemoration manifests in physical architecture. Symbols convey mortal attempts to reconcile the reality of death through memorial. The dead rural peasants are brought through “long-drawn aisles” (Gray 39) and “fretted vaults” (Gray 14), symbolic of the church. In contrast to the dullness of “death”, the church offers temporary consolation from the desolation of death. The long vowels in “long-drawn” connotes ostentatiousness and expansiveness, indicating prestige. The juxtaposition between the impressiveness of the architecture and rural poverty of the villagers elucidates that death unfetters people from destitution but cannot achieve lasting memorial. Through this, momentary glorification that comes with human commemoration after death is alluded to and proven to be false.

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Faith in the flawed ideal of human commemoration that Gray wishes to rebuke is reiterated through the ironic symbolism of the country churchyard as a biblical Eden, a seemingly safe sanctuary where humans can seek salvation but paradoxically has fallen into physical corruption. The natural environment of Eden has man-made structures of gravestones, showing man’s preference for human remembrance. The “mouldering” (Gray 14) country churchyard, or Eden[12] is damaged and not offering true solace. The continuous tense of “mouldering” presents the corruption of Eden as gradual. The “ivy-mantled tower” (Gray 9), surrounding “rugged elms” and “yew-tree’s shade” (Gray 13) is observed by the persona. According to biblical symbolism, the “ivy” symbolises eternal life, “elms” dignity, and the “yew-tree”[13] sorrow. The Edenic elements of dignity and eternal life are reminders of true solace that Eden can bring. However, as the tower is collapsing with “ivy” entwined, it represents the faith in commemoration collapsing.

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Eden, corrupted by human edifices, is lost in front of the persona, Gray’s reminder that faith in artificial memorial cannot allow the soul to seek liberation. In contrast to The Grave where decay is more intense, the collapse within Elegy is gradual but visceral. The disparity between the natural world and metaphorical darkness that is looming presents a rapidly diminishing Eden. “The curfew tolls the kneel of parting day” (Gray 1), which pays homage to Purgatorio Canto VIII[14] by Dante Alighieri[15], signals the end of the day or harkening of death[16], showing the eventual corruption of Eden. The concurrent decay of architecture within the natural environment of Eden undercuts the notion that preservation through human commemoration can provide an easeful acceptance of death. Instead, God’s salvation is necessary; such is Gray’s response to the transient nature of life.

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The necessity of God’s salvation in the acceptance of death is seen through imagery of “the lap of Earth” and “bosom of his Father and his God”, with “lap” and “bosom” connoting the tactile imagery of warmth. Thus, the pathway to eternal life offered by “God” is illustrated as the solution to an easeful acceptance for the dead and the living.

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Even as the brevity of man’s mortal existence is highlighted, each poet derived variations of the same message in different contexts: Gray as a rural poet, Blair’s emotively distant preaching, and Young’s emotion-driven realisation of God’s word. These realisations aided in their understanding of the progression of man’s pathway from life to death and shaped their responses towards the transient nature of life.

 

God’s promise of everlasting life

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In the journey from life to death, the soul traverses from earth to the hereafter; thus, no matter their responses to the transient nature of life, Graveyard poetry explores the promise of eternal life, another central thematic idea. The increased middle-class fascination with the hereafter[17] and the invocation of auto-didacticism provided impetus to use Graveyard poetry to reaffirm the assurance of God’s promise of eternal life.

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Gray, Blair, and Young used the form and movement of their poems to preach the promise of eternal life, albeit varying in adherence to the meditative verse tradition that “[apprehended] the reality and the meaning of the presence of God”[18]. Young articulates his ideas about Faith and Reason in seeking moral salvation through macro and micro-structures while Gray conveys classical ideas of memento mori in the movement from elegy to epitaph and Blair uses the Vanitas Elegy to illustrate that moral salvation is achieved by Faith alone.

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Young’s Night Thoughts, written in unrhymed iambic pentameter and blank verse, created a trance-like effect and provoked thought about the recklessness of Man, eventually providing the assurance of eternal life. The iambic pentameter creates structure and the lack of rhythm produces forward momentum, reinforcing God’s rational promise of eternal life, alluding to Young’s “foolish youth”[19] and stern stance against irresponsibility.

Night Thoughts derives morality and assurances of moral salvation within each stanza without alluding to the graveyard. In conjunction with typographical elements, the macro-structure or “semantic structures of discourse whose meaning and reference is defined in terms of their constituents' meanings”[20] systematically discuss the various elements of theology that lead to the promise of eternal life.

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The extended poem is first divided into four large sections; “NIGHT THE FIRST: ON LIFE, DEATH AND IMMORTALITY”, “NIGHT THE SECOND: ON TIME, DEATH AND FRIENDSHIP”, “NIGHT THE THIRD: NARCISSA”, and “NIGHT THE FOURTH: THE CHRISTIAN TRIUMPH”. The capitalisation of each section clarifies the macro-structure and demarcation of the various thematic divisions. Moreover, “triumph”, which connotes overwhelming success, aptly summarises its “constituent’s meaning”, allowing Young to direct the reader to his moral message of God’s promise of salvation.

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The extended poem is further divided into sub-sections through a micro-structure, the “sequence of propositions underlying the sequence of sentences of the discourse, [constituting] the input to the macro-rules”[21] within each “NIGHT”, allowing Young to elaborate on his macro ideas.

Night Thoughts addresses the “Complaint” from “NIGHT THE FIRST” to “NIGHT THE THIRD”, touching on “life”, “death”, “immortality”, and “friendship” within the transience of life. In “NIGHT THE FIRST”, “Life, death and immortality” are expounded upon in the stanzas “This Life, only the Commencement of Being” (Young 1. 123) and “All men are thought mortal but ourselves” (Young 1.345). The adverb “only” and verb “thought” imply that man is misguided while the assurance of God-provided eternal life is right. In “NIGHT THE SECOND”, “Time, death and friendship” are covered in stanzas such as “Avarice of Time” (Young 2. 17) and “Utility of rational conversation” (Young 2.446) as the fictional “Lorenzo” is addressed, a symbol of the unenlightened foolish man. In “NIGHT THE THIRD”, a fictional “Narcissa” is addressed, a symbol of grief that comes with loss. Young denies the foolish life in pursuit of God’s promise of liberation within the micro-structure of each “NIGHT” to frame his ideas about man’s foolish response to the transience of life.

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Moreover, “NIGHT THE FOURTH” deals with the promise of God’s salvation, through Faith alone, using the micro-structural divisions within the macro idea of “The Christian Triumph”. In “The triumphant resurrection and ascension” (Young 4.258) and “The Justice and the love of God” (Young 4.200), the possibility of God-given liberation is showcased. “Triumphant” and “King” constitute biblical language, connoting the power of God in promising eternal life, echoing the theological doctrine of Sola Fide which is likewise echoed in The Grave, the second poem to be discussed.

As in Night Thoughts, The Grave warns against earthly happiness but encourages eternal happiness, reaffirming the promise of everlasting life. Even though the central concerns are similar, Young systematically categorises his moral messages into sections, while Blair relies on traditional elements of elegy and epitaphs within meditative melancholy.

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The Grave applies a vanitas elegy, an “elegy composed in an epitaphic mode” where “elements of the epitaph are employed or extended without making the text an epitaph”[22] to preach about God’s promise of eternal life.

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Adopting the role of an authoritative guide, the persona describes the multitude of foul people that contaminate the grave: “Here all the mighty troublers of the earth” (Gray 208), “Here the tongue-warrior lies!” (Gray 397), and “Here the lank-sided miser” (Gray 397). Within the elegy, an expression of anguish at the death of a loved one starting the Epitaphs (inscriptions traditionally found on tombs), “Here lies”, is being replaced by “Here”.[23] The diction of “troublers”, “tongue-warrior”, and “miser” enhance the sinister traits that are frowned upon, such as greed, anger, and selfishness. In employing qualities of the Epitaph in an Elegy, Blair warns against the deadly allures of worldly ambition, urging the reader to seek salvation as promised.

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Going beyond the traditional elegy, The Grave ventures into the future where divine consolation is found[24] as the persona is taken to spiritual heights, surpassing the constraints of the grave. The “Deliverer of mankind” (Gray 668) and “Son of God” (Gray 669) is said to “[rise]”, “shaking off thy fetters” (Gray 679), highlighting man’s emancipation from metaphorical “shackles”, associated with constraint, to liberation. Biblical language of “Deliverer” and “Son of God” implies divine freedom. This ends with the comparison of the mortal soul to a weary “bird”, implying spiritual deliverance, as it “claps his well-fledg’d wings, and bears away” (Gray 767). The unique structure of the vanitas elegy aids in Blair’s warning against earthly temptations whilst providing an assurance of God’s promise of an eternal life.

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The Grave combines both the elegy and epitaph while Elegy moves from elegy to epitaph with a clear transition. The differences in movement stems from context; Blair is confined to the physical graveyard while Gray moves from a physical to imaginary space with clear demarcations to reaffirm God’s assurances of an eternal life.

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Elegy, written in a heroic quatrain and iambic pentameter explores God’s promise of eternal life. The balanced phrasing and logical structure of the poem and nostalgic sentiment of the village are products of dual influences of rational Neoclassical poetry and emotion-driven Romantic poetry. The equilibrium between rationality and sentimentality adds to Gray’s nuanced message that mourning and memory, perceived as a human weakness, are countered only by acceptance of the promise of moral salvation.

 

Furthermore, the form and structure of Elegy hinges upon movement from an elegy to epitaph[25]. The elegy begins when a “hoary-headed swain” mourns for the death of the persona, indulging in memories and saying “Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn / Brushing with hasty steps the dews away” (Gray 98-99). “Seen” implies that these events occurred in the past and the swain’s strong sentimentality. There is a movement from the temporal sorrow of mourning to an impersonal epitaph, serving as a reminder of the permanent state of death.

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The transition between elegy to epitaph is bridged by the “swain” as he asks the persona to “Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay, / Grav’d on the stone beneath yon aged thorn” (Gray 115-116). This movement of the elegy-epitaph elucidates Gray’s idea of human anguish in memory, leading to assurances of eternal life. The epitaph is heralded by a traditional beginning, “Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth” (Gray 117), and ends with the consolation of eternal life within “the bosom of his Father and his God” (Gray 128) as the persona’s soul now rests with God, a reminder of God’s assurance of everlasting existence, reflecting the dominant theme within graveyard poetry.

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Young, Blair, and Gray, influenced by socio-cultural circumstances, crafted graveyard poetry that explored universal human concerns about mortality: how to respond to death with the knowledge that life is transient and that one should heed God’s promise of eternal life.

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Bibliography

 

Abdul-Mohan, Evelyn, Joy. “Christian Unity - A Lived Reality: A       Reformed/Protestant      Perspective” Special Issue: The Global Christian Forum Vol. 27, No. 1 (Sage Publications, Ltd, Transformation, 2010)

 

Angus, John. “Old and New Bills of Mortality; Movement of the Population; Deaths and Fatal Diseases in London During the Last Fourteen Years”, Journal of the Statistical Society of London Vol. 17 No. 2. (Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society, 1854)

 

Blair, Robert and William Stanley Braithwaite (Ed.). “The Grave” The Book of Georgian Verse: Accessed September 2, 2017. http://www.bartleby.com/333/115.html

 

Braaten, Carl and Jenson, Robert (Ed.), Christian Dogmatic, Volume 2. Fortress Press; 2nd Revised edition, 2011.

 

Clymer, Lorna. “Graved in Tropes: The Figural Logic of Epitaphs and Elegies in Blair, Gray, Cowper, and Wordsworth” ELH, Vol. 62, No. 2(The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995)

 

Dijk. Teun. “Semantic Macro-structures and Knowledge Frames in Discourse Comprehension” (University of Amsterdam)

 

Douay-Rheims Bible, 2 September 2017, < http://www.drbo.org/>

 

Gray, Thomas, “Elegy on written on a country churchyard”, Thomas Gray Archive, (2000): Accessed September 2, 2017. http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc>

 

Hart, Jeffrey. “Thomas Gray’s Desperate Pastoral”, Modern Age, (Wilmington 44.2, Spring 2002)

 

Houlbrooke, Ralph. Death, Religion, and the Family in England, 1480-1750 (Oxford Studies in Social History): Oxford University Press: New Ed edition, 2000.

 

Johnson, Samuel. The Poems of Edward Young, Volume 1. Nabu Press, 2012

 

Labriola, Amanda. “The Enclosure of Eden: John Clare and the Politics of Place and Past” (Virtual Commons – Bridgewater State University, 2016)

 

Martz, Louis. The Meditative Poem: An Anthology of Seventeenth Century Verse. Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1963

 

Parisot, Eric. “Disinterring the Grave: Religious authority, poetic autonomy and Robert Blair's fideist poetics”. Scottish Studies Review Vol. 8 Issue 2 (The Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2007)

 

Parisot, Eric. “Piety, Poetry, and the Funeral Sermon: Reading Graveyard Poetry in the Eighteenth Century”.  English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature Vol. 92 Issue 2 (Routledge, 201l)

 

Partridge, Tim. “Yew Trees and their Inter-relationship with Man” (BSc dissertation in Rural Resources Development, 1993)

 

Turner, Michele. “Elegy unto Epitaph: Print Culture and Commemorative Practice in Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Papers on Language & Literature, Vol. 38, Issue 1 (2002)

 

W. Hutchings. “Syntax of Death: Instability in Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Studies in Philology Vol. 81, No. 4 (University of North Carolina Press, 1984)

 

Waligore, Joseph. “Christian Deism in Eighteenth Century England”. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology Vol. 75, Issue 3 (Routledge, 2014)

 

Young, Edward and Ubersax, John (Ed.), EDWARD YOUNG’S NIGHT THOUGHTS Part 1: The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Nights; New Edition with Introduction and Notes for Modern Readers. (San Luis Obispo, California: El Camino Real eBooks, 2015)

Endnotes
 

[1] Eric Parisot, “Piety, Poetry, and the Funeral Sermon: Reading Graveyard Poetry in the Eighteenth Century,” English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature Vol. 92 Issue 2 (201l): 174.

[2] Ralph Anthony Houlbrooke, Death, Religion, and the Family in England, 1480-1750 (Oxford Studies in Social History, Oxford University Press: New Ed edition, 2000), 325.

[3] Parisot, “Piety, Poetry, and the Funeral Sermon”, 177-183.

[4] Parisot, “Piety, Poetry, and the Funeral Sermon”, 181.

[5] John Angus, “Old and New Bills of Mortality; Movement of the Population; Deaths and Fatal Diseases in London During the Last Fourteen Years,” Journal of the Statistical Society of London Vol. 17 No. 2 (1854): 12

[6] Edward Young and John Ubersax (Ed.), EDWARD YOUNG’S NIGHT THOUGHTS Part 1: The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Nights; New Edition with Introduction and Notes for Modern Readers (San Luis Obispo, California: El Camino Real eBooks, 2015), 1

[7] Eric Parisot, “Disinterring the Grave: Religious authority, poetic autonomy and Robert Blair's fideist poetics” Scottish Studies Review Vol. 8 Issue 2 (2007): 25

[8]Ibid, 24

[9] Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Ed.), Christian Dogmatic, Volume 2 (Fortress Press; 2nd Revised edition, 2011), 583.

[10] “Ecclesiasticus 7:40” Douay-Rheims Bible

[11] Joy Evelyn Abdul-Mohan “Christian Unity - A Lived Reality: A Reformed/Protestant Perspective” Special Issue: The Global Christian Forum Vol. 27, No. 1 (2010): 9

[12] Amanda Labriola, “The Enclosure of Eden: John Clare and the Politics of Place and Past” Virtual Commons – Bridgewater State University (2016), 13

[13] Tim Patridge, “Yew Trees and their Inter-relationship with Man” BSc dissertation in Rural Resources Development (1993)

[14] “se ode squilla di lontano / che paia il giorno pianger che si more” (Petrocchi Edition) translated into “If he doth hear from far away a bell / That seemeth to deplore the dying day” (Longfellow translation)

[15] Jeffrey Hart, “Thomas Gray’s Desperate Pastoral” Modern Age Wilmington 44.2 (2002): 163

[16] W. Hutchings. “Syntax of Death: Instability in Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Studies in Philology Vol. 81, No. 4 (1984), 497

[17]  Simon Gunn, “The ministry, the middle class and the ‘civilising mission’ in Manchester, 1850-1880” Social History Vol. 21 Issue 1 (1996), 23

[18] Louis L Martz. The Meditative Poem: An Anthology of Seventeenth Century Verse (Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1963), 18

[19] Edward Young and Samuel Johnson (Ed.) The Poems of Edward Young, Volume 1 (Nabu Press, 2012), 9

[20] Teun A. van Dijk “Semantic Macro-structures and Knowledge Frames in Discourse Comprehension” (University of Amsterdam): 7

[21] Dijk, “Semantic Macro-structures” (4)

[22] Lorna Clymer, “Graved in Tropes: The Figural Logic of Epitaphs and Elegies in Blair, Gray, Cowper, and Wordsworth” ELH, Vol. 62, No. 2 (1995), 367

[23] Ibid, 364

[24] Ibid, 369

[25] Turner, Michele, “Elegy unto Epitaph: Print Culture and Commemorative Practice in Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” Papers on Language & Literature, Vol. 38, Issue 1 (2002), 4-5