26 pages 52 minutes read

Thomas Gray

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1751

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

Literary Device Questions

1. What literary device is exemplified by the speaker’s vivid description of the countryside sights and sounds he observes from his vantage point?

2. What literary device can be evidenced in “But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page / Rich with the spoils of time did ne’er unroll” (Lines 49-50)?

A) allusion

B) alliteration

C) personification

D) hyperbole

3. What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?

A) ABBA

B) ABAB

C) ABBC

D) ABCA

4. The countryside setting of Gray’s poem references an influential English elegy by John Milton called “Lycidas.” What is the term for this kind of reference to another literary work?

A) allusion

B) inversion

C) caesura

D) anecdote

 

Related Titles

By Thomas Gray

Study Guide

logo

Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Thomas Gray

Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

Thomas Gray

Study Guide

logo

The Progress of Poesy

Thomas Gray

The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode

Thomas Gray