This poem's speaker imagines a "Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood" or a "mute inglorious Milton" inhabiting this poem's title location, from which a ploughman "plods his weary way" as "the curfew tolls the knell of parting day".
Late in this poem, a man "'Brushing with hasty steps the dews away / 'To meet the sun upon the upland lawn" is described by the "hoary-headed swain" who narrates five of its final stanzas. The speaker of this poem describes how "uncouth rhymes" and "shapeless sculpture" bedeck objects that also bear names and years "spelt by the unlettered muse". It also imagines how "Chill penury" repressed the "noble rage" of a "heart once pregnant with (*) celestial fire". This poem's speaker imagines a "Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood" or a "mute inglorious Milton" inhabiting this poem's title location, from which a ploughman "plods his weary way" as "the curfew tolls the knell of parting day". For 10 points, name this meditation on death, an elegy by Thomas Gray.
Late in this poem, a man "'Brushing with hasty steps the dews away / '
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"