In this final stanza, Gray separates himself from his merits and his frailties. They become independent entities that seek repose in the bosom of God just as he does. This is an interesting note to end on because Gray has focused on the dead's merits, frailties, and missed opportunities to display merits throughout the rest of the poem.

"All he had" in this context both undermines and supports the notion that this man was melancholic. He gave all that he had to Misery; however, all he had was a single tear.

"Fair Science" shining upon him suggests that the youth was well educated. Unlike the vain poets inspired by muses or the poor who wasted their celestial fire, Gray is favored by "Science" a symbol of acquired knowledge through the study of a discipline.

In the Swain’s story, “thou” addresses the reader of the poem. Notice that now there are three levels to the poem: one in which Gray sits in a churchyard speaking about the dead, another in which Gray invents a character to speak about his future death, and finally a third in which the reader is imported into the future moment and asked to read about the dead Gray's life.

In this line, Gray states the point of his poem: he has tried to remember those who were lost and forgotten so that someone will do the same for him when he is dead and forgotten. By placing himself in the poem using "thee," Gray ironically becomes the "kindred Spirit." Because Gray becomes part of the poem, it becomes an elegy for the poet and preserves him from being forgotten.

This stanza marks the final turn in the poet's focus to his final subject: the fear of being forgotten after one dies. While the beginning and middle of the poem meditated on the advantages and disadvantages of poverty, the tension between rich and poor, and wasted potential, the end of the poem will meditate on how someone can be remembered after they have died.

The Epitaph begins with Gray's humble origins. Like the dead whom he has been describing, he was not born into fortune and fame. Beginning the Epitaph with Gray's birth suggests that this short poem will tell the entire story of his life.

"Lay" in this context means religious law. The Swain believes that the headstone has a Bible verse on it. This recalls the description of the unlettered muse haphazardly scattering Bible verses on headstones earlier in the poem. However, what follows is not a Bible verse but a sophisticated poem. This line establishes a difference between the simple Swain, who cannot read, and the learned reader who can.

A "dirge" is a sad song played at a funeral. The presence of this song signifies that the man the Swain watches—Gray—is dead.

Gray places his voice in an invented character, the "hoary-headed Swain," in order to narrate his own movements. The story that the Swain tells us works to make Gray the subject of the poem and mimics the poetic action that Gray hoped someone would undertake after his death. Gray uses this Swain in order to preserve his own memory.

Notice that Gray suddenly addresses a subject. He uses this "thee" to refer to himself. In this way, Gray is able to insert himself into the poem. He is no longer a spectator observing the graves of others, but a participant within the action of the poem.

"Fond breast" refers to the fond sentiments that cause one's friends or relatives to remember them after they are dead. The dead rely on their living loved ones to maintain their memory.

The "pleasing anxious being" is a poetic way to describe the human body. Here, Gray creates tension as a being residing in a cheerful day must decide to resign itself to being forgotten. Using this rhetorical question, he claims that no one is capable of entering death without looking back at their "cheerful day," or life.

The "insult" that these bones must be protected from is someone walking on their grave. The headstones are crude, but they still mark the burial site and protect the bones.

"Unlettered" means both illiterate and someone unskilled at writing. Characterizing a muse, the goddess of inspiration for education, as "unlettered" is ironic because she should be the source of all eduction. This irony reiterates Gray's theme that these poor people could have been great if given the right opportunity; even a muse is "unlettered" in their circumstances.

Notice that the idealized vision of the country and poverty resurfaces in this line. Gray depicts country peasants as virtuous simply because they lack money and eduction, suggesting that money and eduction are corrupting. Gray seems to ignore the other vices that may affect these people in order to comment on the society in which he lives.

The Muses were Greek goddesses that inspired literary, scientific, and artistic expression. Here, they are offered as an alternative to the celestial fire or divine inspiration mentioned earlier: the Muses represent a type of false idolatry that increases one's pride, while divine inspiration is depicted as a sign of genuine talent and a virtuous nature.

After listing all of the "virtues" or positive things that poverty restricts, Gray also briefly lists the negative things that poverty prevents the poor from doing. This marks a small turn in Gray's meditation on access to knowledge and power.

Notice that the proceeding stanza is a series of dependent clauses that lead to this conclusion. The peasants' lot, poverty, forbade all of the things listed in the previous stanza.

Gray references these three famous historical figures to suggest that someone in the graveyard could have been just as historically influential if given the chance. Gray uses these allusions to emphasize his theme that talent and genius might be wasted because those of low social class are not given the tools or the space to demonstrate their brilliance.

During the English Civil War, John Milton was a statesman who served as the Secretary of Foreign Tongues under Thomas Cromwell. He wrote treaties supporting the revolution and justifying the execution of King Charles I, despite the King's status as a divine right monarch. Milton went on to be one of the greatest poets in English literature with his epic poem Paradise Lost.

John Hampden was a member of Parliament under King Charles I. Hampden refused to pay a tax on his ships because he believed that it was unfair. He became one of the Five Members of Parliament that King Charles illegally tried to arrest for their dissension. Hampden's arrest in 1642 helped spark the English Civil War.

Gray uses these two metaphors to compare the dead in the churchyard to beautiful things that are never seen: a gem in a dark ocean cave and a blooming flower in a barren desert.

Education at this time mostly focused on philosophy, language, and art from the ancient Romans and Greeks. In using this metaphor, Gray characterizes knowledge as understanding antiquity rather than having practical knowledge.

"Rage" in this context means an intense passion or appetite. "Noble" means dignified or virtuous. This oxymoron signifies a desire to learn that is both ferocious and ardent, while being refined and belonging to a higher social class. Gray uses this metaphor to characterize the forgotten peasants buried in the graveyard as extremely worthy recipients of knowledge so that their lack of knowledge seems tragic.

"Waked to ecstasy" signifies the creation of incredible music using a "lyre" or small harp. With these three fantasies about the potentials of the people in the graveyard, Gray suggests that qualities belong to men rather than lineage. Though lineage determines where one ultimately ends up, in the grave yard or the crypt, and what they spend their days doing, real ability lies in the heart, hands, and mind.

A "bust" is a sculpture of someone's head and shoulders generally commissioned after the person has died to preserve their features. "Storied urns" refer to vases painted with depictions of historical battles, myths and celebrations. Both of these artistic pieces are used to preserve the memory of something that has passed, and are generally commissioned by a person or family that has a lot of money.

Rulers used to carry scepters or iron rods in order to signify their status as a ruler. With this image, Gray imagines that one of the people buried here had the skills to be a great ruler, but were never able to exercise this talent.

In this context, "celestial fire" means divine inspiration, especially for poetic or artistic brilliance. Using this description, Gray imagines that someone buried in the graveyard was a great poet, though they are now forgotten.

Gray compares the human body to a "mansion," the chief resident of a lord or nobleman. Mansions were passed down from generation to generation and seen as an enduring symbol of a family's power. However, in this metaphor, Gray juxtaposes the image of a mansion with "fleeting breath" in order to show that the enduring symbols of wealthy men, busts, mansions, urns, are just as ephemeral as breath. All men are going to die, even if they leave behind man-made structures to preserve their memory.

"Trophies" in this context is something that serves as a token or monument to courage, skill, success, or social status. Here, Gray evokes the metaphorical and literal sense of this word. Trophies either refers to the physical ornaments that mark the graves of the rich, or the metaphorical trophies erected by the memories that keeps the names of the rich and powerful alive while it forgets the common man.

Gray makes power, beauty, and wealth meaningless as all paths in life lead to death. If anything, these symbols of wealth and power are even more ridiculous because both poor and rich alike are destined to die. Here, Gray uses death to erase the distinction between the rich and the poor that he established through imagery at the beginning of the poem.

Farmers would often clear wooded areas in order to cultivate more land for crops. Here, Gray describes this everyday task by saying that the woods "bowed" to the farmers. Bowing was a formal sign of respect that someone of lower social status would do to greet, thank, or otherwise respectfully acknowledge someone of a higher social status. With this term, Gray draws a comparison between the work of the farmers and the work of the nobility, and thus elevates the commonplace work of the farmers.

A "sickle" is a farming tool used to harvest crops. However, the word also invokes images of death. The word itself contains the word "sick" and the grim reaper is often depicted carrying a sickle. Gray uses the many loaded images that come with sickle to suggest death resides within everyday actions. Even though the farmers successfully harvest their crops and conquer the woods, death will win out in the end.

This line marks a turning point within the poem at which Gray stops describing the farmer and begins addressing an imagined audience. Gray presupposes the audience's opinion of the characters he is describing and contradicts it.

"Ply" is a shorthand form of "apply." Gray shortens this word in order to fit the rhythm of his lines. "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is composed in heroic quatrains of iambic pentameter. Using the word "apply" would throw off the rhythm of the poem.

"Lisp" in this context refers to the imperfect way that children speak. With this endearing characterization of children excited about their father's return, Gray creates a pastoral image of the poor. The pastoral tradition is a literary trope that idealizes the life, traditions, and landscapes of rural life. This is an idealized image of the end of a working man's day.

Gray lists four things that would wake common people: the smell of the morning, the twittering of a bird, the crow of a rooster, or a shepherd's horn. This catalogue of methods used to wake up for the workday characterizes those buried in the churchyard in two ways. First, they are poor because they must use these methods instead of servants to wake them. Second, they must wake in order to start their work day—they are defined as workers.

Gray references the graves buried in the church yard. "Mouldering," meaning to mold or decay, directly contrasts the elevated image of the church tower and it's "ancient solitary reign." In juxtaposing these two images, Gray is able to depict two types of graves: the grand tombs of the rich buried within the church, and the decrepit graves of the poor crammed into the church yard.

The "ivy-mantled tower" could be the steeple of the church near the graveyard. In describing it as a "tower" Gray draws an implicit comparison between the steeple and a castle or manor, which would have had towers and turrets. Notice that a sharp distinction is made between the man made tower and the sloping fields. Using this imagery, Gray sets up a main theme within the poem: the difference between the famous rich and the indistinguishable poor.

Gray's choice of "folds" can be interpreted in a few ways, but the different meanings still convey the same idea of adding to the rustic, quiet landscape. "Folds" can refer to enclosures on farms for domestic animals, and it can also be interpreted as the topographical curves on hills and meadows.

Gray uses this word to refer to the soft, metallic sound that comes from the small bells around the necks of the herd of cattle. The soft noise coupled with the setting sun build on the dreamy and quiet scene that he has portrayed in the opening.

Gray uses the adjective "weary" here in more ways than one. It not only refers to the general weariness of the working plowman, but it also establishes one of the major themes of the poem: the work and toil of all the unremembered dead within the churchyard and (by extension) humankind in general.

The verb "to toll" traditionally refers to causing a great bell to sound by pulling on a rope. Such bells are often associated with churches, which in turn are often near graveyards. Paired with the noun "knell" which refers to the sound that the large bell makes, this phrase has strong associations with such somber occasions as church services and funerals.

Toll, knell, parting: these three words in the first line of the poem establish the mood of the elegy as one of somber meditation, as Gray reminds readers of the inevitable presence of death as the final condition of humankind and sets the scene for his elegy.

The man will no longer climb the "customed hill" because he has died.

Gray's speaker suggests that once a man is dead, it is useless to worry about his strengths or weaknesses any longer. He is in "the bosom of his Father and his God" from then on.

In the 18th century, "melancholy" meant not just "sadness" but a state of mind in which one understands that one's life is brief and sometimes hard, but it still is worth living. The person being described here would have been both glad and sad at the experience of living. Melancholy is personified as a goddess who "mark[s]" certain individuals.

Gray's speaker points out how the dead rely on the living to perform some necessary tasks. One example is the ceremonial placing of coins on the eyelids of the dead to keep them closed.

This is a fairly ambiguous line. The most likely meaning is "for the person who will be forgotten"—that is, the person in the grave.

Here Gray points out that the monuments in the country churchyard, although not beautiful or eloquent, protect the dead.

This is one of the most well-known and often-quoted phrases in English poetry. Madding means maddening.

Gray uses "ingenuous shame" to mean natural or noble shame. In this case, shame is a good thing because it is the result of having a conscience.

Gray refers to Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), a leader of the Parliamentary forces against King Charles I, and, later, Lord Protector of England during what is known as the Commonwealth Interregnum. Gray believed that Cromwell was guilty of a great deal of bloodshed, but here he is suggesting that there might be a "guiltless" Cromwell in the graveyard.

The speaker's point in this stanza is that, even in this rural graveyard, there may be the grave one who bore the potential to be a powerful leader or a great musician.

Gray's speaker reminds the "Proud"—the famous and powerful—of the difficult truth that when we are dead, the type of monuments we may have make no difference; we're still dead.

Gray's speaker is addressing the rich and powerful, who may have beautiful monuments on their graves, to remind them not to look down upon the poor who have no such monuments.

In the speaker's view, the great and powerful should not look down on the "short and simple" lives of the working class even though the poor do not make an obvious mark on history.

Gray's speaker suggests that the work of farmers is not exciting, glamorous, or prestigious, but it is nonetheless useful. While ambition is the quality that propels people to fame, it is not necessarily the most essential aspect of human life, morally or practically speaking. The lowing herd still needs to be herded.

In this case, Gray's use of the adjective "rude" means "common," "unrefined" or "of humble origin," rather than the modern meaning of something or someone being offensive.

This is an example of alliteration, a common literary and poetic technique that repeats initial sounds, usually consonants, for an effect. In this case, the repetition of the s sounds imitates the calm and quiet atmosphere Gray describes.

The verb "to low" describes the soft mooing sound cattle and other bovine animals make. The sound is deep and resonant.

In country villages, the "curfew bell" was rung at the end of the working day, an English tradition that dates back to William the Conquerer (1028–1087), who required villagers to "rake up the fire" and "put out the lights" when the curfew bell sounded. The bell rang around bed-time, so roughly 8PM.