Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard

c0 Clarence talks to George after he pulls him out of the water. George is suddenly able to hear with an ear that's been deaf since a childhood accident. George says to Clarence, "Say something else in that ear." Clarence replies, "Sure. You can hear out of it."Say something else in that ear:

We're all just names on grave stones that haven't been carved yet. The world will one day only know us by what others chose those words to be, and by who's buried around us, and if someone leaves flowers on special days and pulls weeds and trims back the grass.
--Clarence 0ddbody


c0


c0 First page of Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church
Click to enlarge: c0 First page of Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard with illustration by Richard Bentley
Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard

This was one of my favorite poems in college (especially suited to oil lamp or candle light). It's not ghostly or eerie in any way, but rather a reflection on unremarkable lives that might have been otherwise.

If it were written today, Gray might replace the pastoral images with ones of clerks and janitors and short order cooks, and though the sentiment would be the same, it would somehow be sadder.


Read Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard >
 

c0

No comments:

Post a Comment