What is the writing perspective in Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard? At first I believed it was a man pondering death but I do not...

A good question. The narrator does reflect on death, and that makes sense. It is logical and natural to think about death at least briefly when you see a cemetery, which the narrator does there in the churchyard.

However, you are right. The poem is not primarily about death. Instead, it is an account of the thoughts sparked by death. The first stanza underscores this by being about endings and isolation: the day is ending,...

A good question. The narrator does reflect on death, and that makes sense. It is logical and natural to think about death at least briefly when you see a cemetery, which the narrator does there in the churchyard.

However, you are right. The poem is not primarily about death. Instead, it is an account of the thoughts sparked by death. The first stanza underscores this by being about endings and isolation: the day is ending, the plowman is heading home, etc.

The next stanzas underscore the change of world that comes with night. This is a time of melancholy, but also of spirit and wonder.

From there, the narrator shifts perspective, moving eventually to social and economic concerns. Starting around line 53, the narrator sees the country courtyard as a sight of missed chances and failed opportunities. Line 55 mentions flowers that bloom unseen, and line 56 that their sweetness goes "wasted."

The following stanzas make this explicit. The narrator is reflecting on the possibilities that there is a "mute inglorious Milton" buried there. The tragedy, then, is not that these people died. The key perspective of the poem is that here in these graves rest the bodies of people who never got a chance to live and express their genius.