Churchill's Grave, a Fact Literally Rendered

Name: Churchill's Grave, a Fact Literally Rendered
Author: Lord Byron

The poem describes the grave of a church leader who has been buried with great pomp and ceremony. The speaker notes that despite the grandeur of the funeral procession, the grave itself is unremarkable, simply a hole in the ground. This contrast between the elaborate ritual and the mundane reality serves to highlight the transience of human life and the inevitability of death.

By Lord Byron · First published 1813 · Genre: Poetry, Elegy, Romanticism · 526 words

First lines

I stood beside the grave of him who blazed / The comet of a season, and I saw / The humblest of all sepulchres, and gazed / With not the less of sorrow and of awe / On that neglected turf and quiet stone, / With name no clearer than the names unknown, / Which lay unread around it; and I ask'd / The Gardener of that ground, why it might be / That for this plant strangers his memory task'd, / Through the thick deaths of half a century? / And thus he answered-‘Well, / I do not know why frequent travellers turn to pilgrims so, / He died before my day of Sextonship, / And I had not the digging of this grave. ' / And is this all? I thought-and do we rip / The veil of Immortality, and crave / I know not what of honour and of light / Through unborn ages, to endure this blight, / So soon, and so successless? / As I said, the Architect of all on which we tread, / For Earth is but a tombstone, did essay / To extricate remembrance from the clay, / Whose minglings might confuse a Newton's thought, / Were it not that all life must end in one, / Of which we are but dreamers- / as he caught, as ‘twere the twilight of a former Sun, / Thus spoke he,-‘I believe the man of whom / You wot, who lies in this selected tomb, / Was a most famous writer in his day, / And therefore travellers step from out their way / To pay him honour-and myself whate'er / Your honour pleases. '-then most pleased I shook / From out my pocket's avaricious nook / Some certain coins of silver, which as ‘twere / Perforce I gave this man, though I could spare / So much but inconveniently: -Ye smile, / I see ye, ye profane ones! all the while, / Because my homely phrase the truth would tell. / You are the fools, not I-for I did dwell / With a deep thought, and with a soften'd eye, / On that Old Sexton's natural homily, / In which there was Obscurity and Fame- / The Glory and the Nothing of a Name.

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Churchill's Grave, a Fact Literally Rendered is listed on Textopian as a poem by Lord Byron, dated 1813 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Lord Byron
Date: 1813 CE
Language: English
Genres: Poetry, Elegy, Romanticism, Philosophical, Historical
Length: 526 words
Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Poetry — The work is written in verse form, utilizing poetic devices such as rhyme and meter.
Elegy — The poem reflects on death and the memory of a deceased individual, typical of elegiac themes.
Romanticism — The poem exhibits characteristics of Romantic literature, including introspection, emotion, and a focus on nature and the sublime.
Philosophical — The poem contemplates existential themes such as immortality, memory, and the passage of time.