Formal approach to the elegy (eulogy) of Thomas Gray written in a country cemeteryThomas Gray's poem "Elegy written in a cemetery Country" is a very structured poem with a fixed number of lines per stanza and a specific rhyme scheme throughout the poem. The poem focuses on Gray's thoughts as he visits a country cemetery and ends with an epitaph written on one of the cemetery's headstones. The setting of a country cemetery automatically gives way to a small, unfamiliar cemetery, and those who inhabit that cemetery will not be people well known in the community or in American history. Gray's form and style allows the reader to see the cemetery he finds himself in, and the metaphors and symbolism he uses opens the reader's mind to a new view of the world. The form of the poem is a very standard elegy, consisting of four verse stanzas and an abab rhyme scheme for each stanza. The form gives a visual image of a cemetery and all the plots lined up in straight lines row after row, and in doing so places the reader in the same setting in which they find themselves. The setting is not only present in the form of the poem, but also in the first stanzas. The setting is in a cemetery after sunset and on a very calm and still night. Gray's choice of words to describe the cemetery presents a striking image, such as "Now the glittering landscape fades from sight, and all the air that a solemn stillness contains..." (5-6) . The reader can visualize the images of the sun setting over the earth and the stillness of the night air from his perspective in these lines. Abab's rhyme scheme gives the reader a mental picture of the cemetery's intrigues. In the first stanza, for example, the ending words are day, lea, wa... middle of paper ... people in life might never be seen due to the environment in which they live or were born . In. The irony of the poem is that the greatest things on earth may not be the ones we can see and consider to be the greatest. Gray's poem inspires the reader to examine one's life to truly measure the things one considers great or wonderful. and delve deeper into society to find the truly great things in one's life. Furthermore, he examines that no matter how great a person becomes in life, he or she will only become a "formless sculpture" (79) with a name, numbers, and an enduring quote that will sum up that entire life. person. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a poem that truly explains that there are much greater things in life than what society considers great, and that one must judge for oneself whether what is great or not based on one's own personal experiences..