26 pages • 52 minutes read
Thomas GrayElegy Written in a Country Churchyard
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1751A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Reading Comprehension Answers
1. D. The first three stanzas indicate that night is falling, and the poem title identifies the graveyard location.
2. B. The speaker compares the lower class farmers in the graveyard with famous artists and writers, and notes that neither could avoid death.
3. A. This is one of the poem’s themes. Despite achievements and fame, the wealthy and powerful eventually die, just the same as the common folk buried in the graveyard.
4. C. The speaker imagines a shepherd observing his funeral and asking a visitor to read the Epitaph on the speaker’s grave.
5. A. “The bosom of his Father and his God” (Line 128) suggests that the speaker is with God. Words of comfort are the traditional way of ending an elegy.
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By Thomas Gray
