of his quiet life and where he died in 1771. He was a small and
graceful man with handsome features and rather an effeminate
appearance, always dressed with extreme care. The greater part of
his life was spent in neatly furnished rooms among his books, for
he was a hard student, and became noted as one of the first
scholars of his time. Among his friends he was witty and
entertaining, but among strangers, quiet and reserved, almost
timid. He loved his mother devotedly, and after her death he kept
her dress neatly folded in his trunk, always by him. Innocent,
well-meaning, gentle and retiring, he drew many warm friends to
him, though his great learning and his fondness for giving
information made many people think him something of a prig.

It might be considered a weakness in the _Elegy_ that it drifts
into an elegy on the writer, who becomes lost in the pathos of his
own sad end. Yet, knowing the man as we do, we can understand his
motives and forgive the seeming selfishness. He is not the only
poet whose own sorrows, real or imaginary, were his greatest
inspiration.

The metre of the _Elegy_ had been used, before Gray's time, by Sir
John Davies for his _Immortality of the Soul_, Sir William Davenant
in his _Gondibert_, and Dryden in his _Annus Mirabilis_, and
others; but in no instance so happily as here by Gray. In the
_Elegy_ the quatrain has not the somewhat disjunctive and isolating
effect that it has in some other works where there is continuous
argument or narrative that should run on with as few metrical
hindrances as possible. It is well adapted to convey a series of
solemn reflections, and that is its work in the _Elegy_.

FOOTNOTES:

[361-1] In some of our American towns and cities a curfew bell is rung
as a signal that the children must leave the streets and go to their
homes. Many years ago it was the custom in English villages to ring a
bell at nightfall as a signal for people to cover their fires with ashes
to preserve till morning, and as a signal for bed. The word _curfew_, in
fact, is from the French, and means _cover fire_.

[361-2] The word _knell_ suggests death, and gives the first mournful
note to the poem.

[361-3] The sheep are shut up for the night in the _folds_ or pens. What
are the _tinklings_? Why should they be called _drowsy_?

[362-4] The poem