These are the opening lines of the epitaph that poet
writes at the end the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. The poet
writes this epitaph in the hope that someday when he would die, his body will
lie in the same graveyard with that epitaph inscribed on his tombstone. These
lines of epitaph indicate that in this grave is buried a young man who was
neither famous nor achieved any financial success.
The speaker calls himself a young person who
is unknown both to Fortune (i.e., good luck or wealth—it
could mean either) and to Fame. In other words, he was of humble
birth. But at least he was no stranger to knowledge, or science, in spite of
his humble origins. He was a scholar and a poet!
An epitaph
is a tribute written to someone dead. The epitaph of "Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard" is often taken to refer to Gray himself and what he
thinks might be written about him after he dies. So It states: A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown. But
the verse is also sometimes interpreted to simply be the epitaph to an
anonymous poet. Therefore it is a riddle. However, if it refers to Gray, it is
significant because it shows that he identifies with all the humble, unknown
souls lying in the country churchyard. He is not setting himself above them,
but states he is equally obscure. Like them, he has not been born to fortune,
which would be high rank or money.
However, given that he
is praising these simple people for their worthy if unsung lives, he would
appear to be equally praising himself in his epitaph. If he is praising himself
for his obscurity, it is ironic, because he has become a famous poet, still
read centuries after his death.
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