n Conquest. The word comes from
the French _couvrir_ (cover) and _feu_ (fire).

[2.] Incense-breathing Morn. The poet regards the morning as a person;
that is, he personifies morning. Personification is seldom used now,
but the eighteenth-century poets delighted in it. It is frequently
employed in this poem.

[3.] Glebe, soil, ground.

[4.] The boast of heraldry, _i.e._ whatever has to do with high rank or
pride of birth.

[5.] Where through the long-drawn aisle, etc. It was the custom to
bury the poorer people of a village in the churchyard, and the rich or
high-born in the church.

[6.] Storied urn. Funeral urns such as were used by the ancients were
frequently decorated with scenes from the life of the deceased.

[7.] Animated, _i.e._ life-like.

[8.] Provoke, call forth, call back to life.

[9.] Full many a gem, etc. One of the best-known stanzas in English
poetry.

[10.] Village-Hampden. John Hampden was an English patriot who refused
to pay taxes levied by the king without the consent of Parliament, and
who died in 1643 from a wound received while fighting for the liberties
of England.

[11.] Milton. John Milton (1608-1674), the author of _Paradise Lost_,
is generally ranked as the greatest English poet after Shakespeare.

[12.] Cromwell. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), the famous Protector, is
now regarded by historians in general as one of the foremost champions
of English liberty.

[13.] Still, always.

[14.] Th' unlettered Muse. In Greek mythology the Muses were nine
goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences, song, and the
different kinds of poetry. The true poet was supposed to be inspired
by them. Gray imagines a new kind of Muse who inspires the writers of
crude epitaphs.

[15.] For thee, who mindful, etc. Gray refers to himself as the writer
of this poem.

[16.] Chance, perchance.

[17.] Swain, countryman. By _swain_ the poets usually mean a country
gallant or lover.

[18.] Lawn, a cleared place in a wood, not cultivated. Now, of course,
the word always means grassland near a house which is kept closely cut.

[19.] Science, knowledge in general, not natural science only.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

1728-1774

Goldsmith was born in Pallas, an out-of-the-way hamlet in Longford
County, Ireland, where his father, the curate, was looked upon as
"passing rich, with forty pounds a year." Not long after, the family
removed to Lissoy, in the County of Westmeath, wher