McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson XVII · Part 3: Lessons XIII-XXIV: Dickens, Gray and Patrick Henry

23. Elegy in a Country Church-Yard (Thomas Gray)

Goal: Your student reads one of the most famous poems in English with feeling and understands its main thought.

⏱ About 45 minutes · 7 steps

Open it at the Internet Archive ↗

You'll need

  • The book, or the scan beside this guide
  • A notebook and pen
  • A dictionary

What's in the book

Gray's Elegy, complete, with an author note and a full-page illustration. The poet, at evening in a village churchyard, thinks about the humble people buried there.

The lesson, step by step

  1. Words and meanings

    Before reading, find these words in the selection and look up any your student does not know: curfew, knell, lea, heraldry, unfathomed. Older words like these come thick in this poem; keep the dictionary open.

  2. About the author

    The book says Thomas Gray (1716-1771) was born in London and educated at Eton and Cambridge. He was a shy, refined scholar who declined to be poet laureate and became Professor of History at Cambridge in 1769. His best-known work is the Elegy, finished in 1749 after seven years.

  3. Read it aloud

    Read the first stanza together, slowly:

    The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

    The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,

    The plowman homeward plods his weary way,

    And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

    Your student reads the whole poem. It is long; take two days if needed.

  4. Talk about it

    SayWhat time of day is it, and what sounds does the poet hear in the first stanzas?

    SayWho are the people buried in this churchyard?

    SayWhat is the poet saying in the "Full many a gem" stanza?

    SayDoes Gray think the poor are less worthy than the great? How do you know?

  5. Tell it back

    Your student explains, in plain prose, the poet's thoughts as he stands in the churchyard.

  6. Copywork and memory

    Copy and learn:

    Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

    The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear:

    Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

    And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

  7. Write (optional)

    Write a paragraph about a talent that might go "unseen." Whose? Why?

Afterwards

Learn the first stanza and the "Full many a gem" stanza by heart over the week.

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