On the Auditory Narrative in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

Abstract

“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is rich in sound resources. Based on the theory of auditory narrative, this paper tries to display the various sound phenomena in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, and then explore the auditory world in the poem. The study explores the auditory narrative in the poem from three aspects: structure, characterization and theme. It is found that the poem mainly consists of the voicelessness of the common people and high voices of the powerful and the rich, while voicelessness is sounded through the poem. Through this poem, the poet expresses his deep sympathy and praise for the obscure people of the lower class, and at the same time his scorn and ridicule for the powerful and the rich. And the poet's invocation of sound as a sensory function is conducive to further understanding of what makes “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” a transitory work to English Romanticism.