Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven ('t was all he wished) a friend.

No farther seek his merits to disclose, 125
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.



NOTE.--The _Elegy_ was finished at Stoke Poges in 1750, when the poet
was thirty-four years old. It was so popular that one edition followed
quickly upon another, and it was even translated into foreign languages.

Notice that throughout the poem the lines are of equal length, each
consisting of five feet or measures, and that in a stanza the alternate
lines rhyme.


[1.] The curfew was an evening bell which originally warned people to
cover their fires, put out their lights, and go to bed. It was
instituted in England after the Norman Conquest. The word comes from
the French _couvrir_ (cover) and _feu_ (fire).

[2.] Incense-breathing Morn. The poet regards the morning as a person;
that is, he personifies morning. Personification is seldom used now,
but the eighteenth-century poets delighted in it. It is frequently