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Sleep Sleep in death. compared to sleep.

Death is frequently

V.

"The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,
The swallow twitt'ring from her straw-built shed,
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

Breezy call the call of the breeze.The wind in poetry is faid to murmur-to whisper, &c.

Incense-breathing.-Another compound epithet-Incense is the smoke of perfume, and is therefore properly applied in speaking of the breath, which issues from the mouth, and which looks like smoke, as may be seen on a cold morning, or in frosty weather. It is here applied to morning as it were to a person who is supposed to breathe a sweet perfume, because the morning air is usually sweet and refreshing.

Cock's shrill clarion,-or trumpet.
Echoing horn-of the huntsman.

VI.

"For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,' Or busy housewife ply her evening care:

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share.

Housewife-properly means the wife, who

who takes care of the house: it sometimes means a thrifty, careful person.

It is hoped that our young readers will consult a dictionary, for the meaning of such words as they do not clearly understand.

VII.

"Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke;
How jocund did they drive their team a field!
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

These three last stanzas point out the object of the poem, which is to show that death levels all distinctions, and that the poor, who were buried in this churchyard, had all the feelings, pains, and pleasures of the rich. The poet says, "In yonder churchyard, beneath the shade of those elus and yew trees, the earth, raised in heaps over those graves, points out the places where the former inhabitants of the village sleep in death. The morning breeze, that smells sweetly, the swallow chirping at the eaves of their thatched cottages, the crowing of the cock, or the huntsman's horn, shall never again rouse them from their bed. No cheerful fire shall be again lighted, nor fupper prepared for them by their careful and fond wives; nor shall their children, who have been playing on the green,

run home to tell that they see their fathers returning from their work."

VIII.

"Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile,
The short and simple annals of the poor.

The words "ambition," and "grandeur," are here used to express those persons who are ambitious, and those who are fond of grandeur; such persons often despise their inferiours, and are here called upon by the poet, to listen to the "annals of the poor" without derision or contempt.

Annals.-Annal is properly a history of each year, during any particular period: here it means a history.

IX.

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour;

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

Heraldry.We request our young readers to consult Chambers's Dictionary for an explanation, under the word arms. It would take up too much room to explain it here.

Th' inevitable hour-the hour of death, which cannot be avoided.

The paths of glory.-Life is frequently represented in poetry, and moral writings, as a journey; and the different pursuits of mankind are metaphorically called roads, or paths, or walks, or ways; as, the road to preferment, the path of honour, the walks of the righteous, and the ways of man, are all familiar expressions; and sometimes life is also represented as a voyage. An ocean of misery, a sea of troubles, the stream of favour, the fountain of honours, the tide of prosperity, the current of affairs, the ebb of favour or of fortune, are figurative expressions that are continually em ployed by orators and poets.

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Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If mem❜ry o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault, The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.

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Impute to these the fault. These means those poor persons who have only a heap of earth raised over their graves, instead of monuments with pompous inscriptions. Look in the dictionary for trophies and anthem.

Pealing-This word appears particularly poetical, because, though it is to be found in Milton and Pope, it has not been commonly

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used as an epithet for an organ. A peal of thunder, to ring a peal of bells, are common expressions. A peal, means properly a succession of loud founds.

XI.

"Can storied urn, or animated bust,

Back to it's mansión call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust?
Or flattery sooth the dull, cold ear of Death?

Storied,-embossed with figures, representing some history of the deceased, as the Barberini vase is supposed to be. See the Botanic Garden.

Animated bust.-A bust so well carved as to appear animated or alive.

Provoke, in the fourth line, does not mean offend, enrage; but it means to call forth, to call back again to life.

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The whole of the eleventh stanza, though very beautiful in itself, interrupts the reasoning of the poem; for the following verses do not. relate to it, but to the stanza preceding it. Had the place of the 10th and 11th stanzas been changed, the sense would be clearer. Gray seems to affect obscurity in many of his poems.

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