"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray (1751)

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is generally considered Thomas Gray’s most famous work. In the poem, the speaker visits a lowly cemetery and considers the lives of the people buried there. As with “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” the poem makes use of imagery, personification, and juxtaposition. An important theme of the poem concerns the contrast between the lives of ordinary adults and famous adults. In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Gray explores the idea that not all adults deal with a harsh fate, and those who avoid the spotlight are able to maintain peace.

“Incident” by Countee Cullen (1925)

As with Gray’s poem, Cullen’s “Incident” features stanzas with the same amount of lines and a set rhyme scheme. Cullen’s poem presents a different picture of childhood as an eight-year-old child experiences the toxic world at large when the child experiences racism. The child doesn’t brush this racist moment off,  remembering it even as an adult. Cullen shows how race and location can impact childhood and create an environment as harsh as the one that Gray attaches to adulthood.

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