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1. What do you think prompts the speaker to start thinking about his own death?
For the first twenty or so stanzas, he's cheerfully thinking about the dead
villagers. What shifts, and why?
2. Why do you think Gray uses so much personification? Why, for example, does
he say "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil" in line 29, instead of, "Hey,
ambitious people, don't make fun of these guys"? What's the effect on your
reading?
3. In his Preface to Lyrical Ballads (which you can access here), William
Wordsworth famously used Thomas Gray as an example of what poets
should not do. He said that Gray used too much of what he called "unnatural"
language—too many metaphors, too many personifications. Wordsworth argued
that regular people didn't really talk like that, so poets shouldn't, either. Do you
agree with Wordsworth? Why or why not? See if you can use examples from the
poem to explain your answer.
4. Who do you think is the intended audience of this poem? Men, women? Rich
people, poor people? Young or old? Why do you think so?
5. If this is an "Elegy," or a poem of mourning, who or what is it mourning? How do
you know?
6. Why do you think Gray insisted so much on the fact that it's
a country churchyard? Would the poem be different if it were set in a city? How
so?
7. What do you imagine people will say about you after you're dead? What would
you like them to say? If you could write your own epitaph, as Gray does in this
poem, what would it say?
8. Question 1
9. The speaker's tone in the second stanza is:
10. a
11. Joyous
12. b
13. Angry
14. c
15. Somber
16. d
17. Tearful
18. help Question Difficulty: 3 (74% get this right)
19. ✔
20. Question 2
21. What time of day is it when the poem begins?
22. a
23. Early morning
24. b
25. Midnight
26. c
27. Noon
28. d
29. Late afternoon
30. help Question Difficulty: 3 (73% get this right)
31. ✔
32. Question 3
33. What animal "complains" in the third stanza?
34. a
35. A goat
36. b
37. A cow
38. c
39. An owl
40. d
41. A mule
42. help Question Difficulty: 2 (80% get this right)
43. ✘
44. Question 4
45. What sounds does the speaker hear?
46. a
47. The knell of the church bell and cows lowing
48. b
49. Grass rustling between the tombstones and footsteps
50. c
51. A rooster crowing and children laughing
52. d
53. A lark singing and a wheelbarrow rolling
54. help Question Difficulty: 3 (74% get this right)
55. ✔
56. Question 5
57. What has been disrupted in the fourth stanza?
58. a
59. The earth, because of the digging of graves
60. b
61. The speakers train of thought as he contemplates death
62. c
63. Mourners
64. d
65. The day as it succumbs to night
Both A and B
Twelve
Nine
Eighteen
32
33
34
In which circle are Virgil and Aristotle placed in?
Hydra
Minos
Satan
Which city did Dante come from and was exiled from?
Appears frequently throughout the work.
Florence
Venice
Rome
Milan
Violence
Anger
Lust
Violence
Anger
Treachery
How many ditches are included in Circle Eight of the
inferno?
12
14
10
8
Caina
Ptolomaea
Antenora
Who sent Virgil to find Dante and bring him through the
inferno?
Joan of Arc
Sarah
Beatrice
Dante's mother
Charon
Cerberus
A centaur
The Odyssey
The Aeneid
Republic
Good Friday
Christmas
Yom Kippur
Repetitive Deaths
Aeneas
Aristotle
Julius Caesar
Virgil
Thomas Aquinas
St. Augustine
The village