ESSA Y VII. On GRAY'S CHURCH-YARD ELEGY. HE Elegy written in a Country TH Church-Yard, from the nature of its fubject, and the merit of its executions, has obtained an uncommon share of popularity. The principal refpect in which it has been fuppofed defective, is a want of plan; an ingenious Writer has observed, that it is thought by fome to 'be no more than a confused heap of fplendid ideas, thrown together with out order, and without proportion.'* That it is, however, not deftitute of • Mr. Knox's Effays, Moral and Literary, Vol. 1, p. 92, 1. Edit. plan, plan, the following analysis will sufficiently demonftrate: whether the arrangement might not have been in fome parts improved, is another question. The Poet very graphically defcribes the procefs of a calm evening, in which he introduces himself wandering near a Country Church-Yard. From the fight of the place, he takes occafion, by a few natural and fimple, but important circumftances, to characterize the life of a peafant; and obferves, that it need not be difdained by ambition or grandeur, whofe moft diftinguished fuperiorities must all terminate in the grave. He then proceeds to intimate, that it was not from any natural inequality of abilities, but from want of acquired advantages, as riches, knowledge, &c. that the humble race, whose place of interment he was furveying, did not rank with the moft celebrated of their cotemporaries. The fame impediments, however, which obftructed their courfe to greatness, he thinks alfo precluded their progress in vice, and, confequently, that what was loft in one refpect, was gained in the other. From this reflection he not unnaturally proceeds to remark, on that univerfality of regard to the deceased, which produces, even for thefe humble villagers, a commemoration of their past existence. Then turning his attention. on himself, he indulges the idea of his being commemorated in the fame manner, and introduces an epitaph which he supposes to be employed on the occafion. The matter here, it must be allowed, is not extenfive nor uncommon; the poem muft, therefore, depend much on the manner for its importance; V. 1. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herd wind flowly o'er the lea; The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landfcape on the fight, And all the air a folemn ftillness holds, Save Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The Poetry can alone univerfally intereft, when it "6 brings back the memory of the past," when it recalls the objects we have seen, and the emotions we have felt. Every man of obfervation, who has wandered in the fields in an autumnal evening, will acknowledge Gray's picture to be drawn from nature. circumstances which denote the progreffion of time, are regularly introduced, and finely marked; as the departure of day; the homeward return of the herd, and of the plowman; the gradual fading of the landscape; the fubfequent filence, broken only by the hum of the beetle; the distant tinkling of the weather bell, and hooting of the owl; Parting day was undoubtedly intended for fetting fun. and and lastly, the rifing of the moon, by which the Church-Yard, the object of contemplation, becomes vifible. Parallels between different fubjects are feldom natural or just enough to be pleafing; they exift oftener in the fancy of the perfon comparing, than in any actual resemblance of the things compared. There are inftances however, in which they have their advantages: the fuppofed tolling of the curfew, just as the fun was leaving the horizon, is not wholly deftitute of analogy to the tolling of what is called the paffing bell for the deceased. The mention of a knell, naturally recalls this idea, and fpreads a folemnity over the mind, which prepares it for the fentiments that follow. A Periodical Writer * has objected to this line. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.' THE BABLER, Vol. 1. No. 55. The |