《墓园挽歌》是一首有关人生短暂的沉思，他的名声也就建立在这首诗上来自。他和一圈朋友以此类主题写了许多诗篇，故而被后人称为The Gra挥支错veyard S360百科chool"墓园派"。作者托马斯·格雷Thomas Gray 怎种(1716-1771 问行重),英国18世纪重要诗人，也是英国新古装跑愿介会假典主义后期的重要诗人。格雷一生作诗不多，仅十余首传世，其中以《汉爱慢诗墓园挽歌》Elegy 丝子想误序Written in a Country Churchyard (17在接察急50) 最为著名化教导志界仅量犯。

• 作品名称 墓园挽歌
• 外文名称 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• 作者 托马斯·格雷
• 创作年代 1750年

创作背景

　　此诗创作长达8年之久，最初是为了哀悼他在伊顿公另诗课段黄语胡奏克学读书时的好友里查德 ·韦斯特，至少诗末所附的"墓志铭"是为他而作。但纵观全诗，其内容已经明显超越了对某个具体人物的哀思。通过对乡村一处墓地的描写，表达对下层默默无闻的人民的深切同情，为他来自们纯朴善良品质而赞扬，为他们没有机会施展天赋和才华而惋惜；同时也表现了对权贵、人间虚荣的蔑视和嘲360百科讽，对大人物傲慢奢侈生内号乱活的谴责。

原文内容

　　The poem begins in 此朝纸持英蛋着a churchyard wit缩士员多手态集反h a narrator who is describing his surroundings in vivid detail. The narrator emphasises both aural and visual s军象设村价统底热言因ensations as he examines the area in relation to himself:

　　The curfew t们养均一裂断如olls the knell of parting day,

　　The lowin浓体款g herd wind slow光亮只但装喜害石美失ly o'er the lea

　　The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,

　　And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

　　Now fades the glimm'ring landscape on the sight,

　　And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

　　Sa祖ve where the beetle wheels his droning flight,

　　And drowsy ti被和范随题既额模车强损nklings lull the distan百水依是阶养林内因无原t folds;

　　Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r

　　The mop象环ing owl does to the moon complain

　　Of 聚李课易议么正光地策such, as wand'r坚散套今防环所粮概ing near her 哥针做黄斤减西官长secret bow'r,

　　Molest her 记计换绝ancient solitary reign. (lines 1–阿雅邀地12要某看较)

　　As the 致慢poem continues, the narrator begins to focus less on the countryside and more on his immediate surroundings. His descriptions begin to move from sensations to his own thoughts about the dead. As the poem changes, the narrator begins to emphasise what is not present in the scene; he contrasts an obscure country life with a life that is remembered. This contemplation provokes the narrator's thoughts on waste that comes in nature:

　　Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

　　The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:

　　Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,

　　And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

　　Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast

　　The little tyrant of his fields withstood;

　　Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

　　Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

　　The applause of listening senates to command,

　　The threats of pain and ruin to despise,

　　To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,

　　And read their hist'ry in a nation's eyes,

　　Their lot forbade: nor circumscrib'd alone

　　Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd;

　　Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,

　　And shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

　　The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide,

　　To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,

　　Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride

　　With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. (lines 53–72)

　　The narrator focuses on the inequities that come from death, obscuring individuals, while he begins to resign himself to his own inevitable fate. As the poem ends, the narrator begins to deal with death in a direct manner as he discusses how humans desire to be remembered. As the narrator does so, the poem shifts and the first narrator is replaced by a second who describes the death of the first:

　　For thee, who mindful of th' unhonour'd Dead

　　Dost in these lines their artless tale relate;

　　If chance, by lonely contemplation led,

　　Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate,

　　Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,

　　Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn

　　Brushing with hasty steps the dews away

　　To meet the sun upon the upland lawn. (lines 93–100)

　　The poem concludes with a description of the poet's grave, over which the narrator is meditating, together with a description of the end of the poet's life:

　　There at the foot of yonder nodding beech

　　That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high,

　　His listless length at noontide would he stretch,

　　And pore upon the brook that babbles by.

　　Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,

　　Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove,

　　Now drooping, woeful wan, like one forlorn,

　　Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.

　　One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,

　　Along the heath and near his fav'rite tree;

　　Another came; nor yet beside the rill,

　　Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he;

　　The next with dirges due in sad array

　　Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne.

　　Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay,

　　Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." (lines 101–116)

　　An epitaph is included after the conclusion of the poem. The epitaph reveals that the poet whose grave is the focus of the poem was unknown and obscure. The poet was separated from the other common people because he was unable to join with the common affairs of life, and circumstance kept him from becoming something greater:

　　Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth

　　A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.

　　Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,

　　And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

　　Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

　　Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:

　　He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,

　　He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.

　　No farther seek his merits to disclose,

　　Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,

　　(There they alike in trembling hope repose)

　　The bosom of his Father and his God. (lines 117–128)

　　The original conclusion from the earlier version of the poem promotes the view that humans should be resigned to the fact that we will die, which differs from the indirect, third person description in the final version:

　　The thoughtless World to majesty may bow

　　Exalt the brave, & idolize Success

　　But more to Innocence their Safety owe

　　Than Power & Genius e'er conspired to bless

　　And thou, who mindful of the unhonour'd Dead

　　Dost in these Notes thy artless Tale relate

　　By Night & lonely contemplation led

　　To linger in the gloomy Walks of Fate

　　Hark how the sacred Calm, that broods around

　　Bids ev'ry fierce tumultous Passion ease

　　In still small Accents whisp'ring from the Ground

　　A grateful Earnest of eternal Peace

　　No more with Reason & thyself at strife;

　　Give anxious Cares & endless Wishes room

　　But thro' the cool sequester'd Vale of Life

　　Pursue the silent Tenour of thy Doom.

艺术特色

　　这令球座首诗充分体现了格雷的民主思想。由于贫困，农民不能发挥自己的才能，不能成为像弥尔顿John Milton 那样的文学家，像克伦威尔Oliver Cromwell 那样的政治家。但是从另一方面说，在他们身上没有"野心"，"傲慢"，"骄""奢"和"谄媚"。他们虽然"贫瘠"，没有知识，但却有"德性"和"天良"，他们是自然本身。这样的思想和弥漫于全诗的感伤情调，使《墓园挽歌》Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750) 成为18 世纪后期感伤主义诗歌的典范之作。