Eulogies Essay, Research Paper

An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death. It is a very good way for people to

release stress. It makes others think. An elegy to some people, is very depressing to

read. Most of thge time it tells the truth about a side of a persons life, that no one

knows about. An elegy could be a real breath taker, if taken the right way.

There are many well known elegy authors. One of them is Thomas Gray. Gray

wrote the elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. In Gray s poem, he compares the

life of a human with a day. The morning would be the person when they were young.

High noon would be around middle age. The evening would be when they are

elderly. For the obsticles people have to go through in their life, he puts in wind, rain,

and so on to reflect upon the difficult tasks one faces.

Thomas Gray wrote another poem called The curse upon Edward. In this

poem, Gray does not compare and contrast. He talks about death up front. He says

that The shrieks of death, thro Berkley s roof that ring. (Gray. 821) Gray has a way of

writing lines in difficult ways, that you could have used six words to explain the

sentence. In his last poem The Progress of Poesy, Gray has a different way of

explaining his point of view. In this particular poem he pertains to life as a drink. He

wants the reader to get a mental picture of a human , drinking life like a glass of tea.

Grays point, is the a person has total control of what they do, and what a person does

not do. If one makes a mistake, just shake it off and start over again.

Two other well known elegy authors, are Burton Raffel, and Charles W.

Kennedy. Raffel translated the poem The Seafarer and Kennedy The Wanderer.

Raffel used the sea to tell his tale. an example of how Raffel use the sea is OF s

mashing surf when I sweated in the cold, Of am anxious watch, purched in the bow,

As it dashed under cliffs, My feet were cast, In Icy bands, Bound with frost.(Raffel. 17)

In Kennedy s poem The Wanderer , he just tells the story how it happens. He does

not compare it to some kind experiencehe has had in the past. An example of his

work is Oft when the day broke, oft at the dawning, Lonely and wrenched I wailed

my woe. No man is living, no comrade left, To whom I dare fully unlock my heart.

(Kennedy. 57) Kennedy and Raffel write about the same things. They do not use the

same tastics the other one uses, but they each can get their point across. One may

think Rafffel can tell his story cleaner, smoother than Kennedy. Kennedy just tells you

the story the way it is, one might not like it told that way.

Throughout the years, ther has been a number of great elegy authors. They are

all excellent. It takes a well educated mind to come up with some of the ideas they get,

and then be able to put it on paper like it was one second nature. Back in time, the

elegy was the ony type poem written, therefore everyone who wrote had to write an

elegy, that is why there are so many good one out there in today s time. Even though

an elegy talks about death, I still enjoy reading a good elegy every once and a while.

Ward 3

WORKS CITIED

Gray, Thomas. American Poetry. United States, 1951. 821

The Seafarer. Prentice Hall Inc. 17

The Wanderer. Prentice Hall Inc. 17