Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

1. Gray uses several instances of personification in the poem. Identify his uses of personification and explain what each personified entity is said to be doing or not doing. Then, explain what each use of personification means; in other words, what message is Gray imparting through the line(s) in which personification is used? Model your answers after the following template:

_______________________ is personified through the characteristic(s) of__________________________________, which only a person can do/be.

Through this instance of personification, Gray is saying that _______________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Once you have identified all the examples of personification you can find in the poem, compare your ideas with a partner. Add to your findings any examples your partner found that you missed, and vice versa. Then, discuss the following questions:

• What do all of the personification examples have in common?
• In what section of the poem do the majority of the instances of personification occur?
• What is the poet talking about in the section you identified above?
• How do uses of personification connect to the poem’s theme(s)?
• One characteristic of an elegy based on John Milton’s elegy “Lycidas” is the inclusion of a procession of mourners. How might Gray’s use of personification fulfill this requirement?

2. As previously mentioned, Gray’s elegy alludes throughout to an influential English elegy by John Milton.