A place of inspiration - a reason to visit your local
churchyard. Gray’s Elegy: Poetry Competition 2016
Caring for God’s Acre, the charity which promotes the conservation
of burial sites is supporting the Thomas Gray 2016 project of the
Stoke Poges Society, which is celebrating the tercentenary of the
birth of Thomas Gray, the poet who wrote the world-famous “Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard”. The poem, inspired during Gray’s
many visits to St. Giles Churchyard in Buckinghamshire, records his
feelings as he considers the lives of the everyday villagers buried
there and contemplates their hidden potential.
This year’s competition takes its theme from the poem:
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen”.
This poetry competition has an Open Class and a School Class
which has free entry for any student in full time education. Entries
can be submitted online by the closing date of 24th June 2016.
http://thomasgray2016.org/poetry-competition/
Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard was first published in
1751 and immediately recognised as a classic of English literature.
Other familiar lines include:
“The paths of glory lead but to the grave.”
“The short and simple annals of the poor”
“Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife”
“The ploughman homeward plods his weary way…”
The tomb in St Giles’ Churchyard where Thomas Gray was buried in
1771 was restored in 2013 as part of the anniversary project.
Information about other activities taking place in 2016 is available on
their website. www.thomasgray2016.org
The entries to the Open Class will be judged by the poet, Daljit
Nagra whose debut poetry collection Look We Have Coming to
Dover! won the 2007 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the
South Bank Show Decibel Award. In October 2015, he was
appointed the inaugural Poet in Residence for BBC Radio 4.
Daljit is looking forward to reading the entries. As he says: “Gray’s
Elegy is fascinating for the way it opens portals for imaginative
freedom. Entrants should feel inspired to see the modern world
anew by the range of the many-angled quotation”.
School Class entries will be judged by Michael Meredith, formerly
Head of English at Eton College where Thomas Gray was a pupil in
the 18th century.
The Thomas Gray Anniversary Project: