Elegy written in a country churchyard study questions

1. Study Questions on Christopher Smart’s “Jubilate Agno”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/jubilate-agno-fragment-b-i-will-consider-my-cat-jeoffry

1). At the beginning of the poem, the speaker’s cat is described as the “servant of the Living God.” How, specifically, are the descriptions of the cat that follow this claim meant to make it seem plausible rather than absurd?

2). At least some of the assertions in the poem are absurd. Here’s an example: “For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbor” (19). Within the context of the selection that you’ve been given to read, what might be the function of such an assertion?

3). In what ways might the final two lines of the selection be seen as changing the portrayal of the cat?

2. Study Questions on Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” and “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/elegy-written-country-churchyard

http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=odec

1). In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” what is the difference between the “madding crowd” (l.73) and the people who are buried in the churchyard? How do the previous three stanzas help to explain this difference?

2). Much of “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” describes why the people who are buried are unlikely to be remembered. How does the speech of the “hoary headed swain” (ll. 98 116) try to persuade us that the people might be worth remembering?

3). Near the end of “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” the speaker says that “Thought would destroy their paradise” (98). What is meant by “paradise” here? In what ways does the poem suggest that “thought” might “destroy” this “paradise”?

3. Study Questions on Goldsmith’s “The Deserted Village”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44292

1). In l.74, the speaker says “rural mirth and manners are no more.” What does the speaker mean by “rural mirth and manners”? What has caused them to disappear?

2). In ll.137-216, we are given a description of the lives of a preacher and a teacher who lived in the village. How do their lives differ from the lives of the rich described in ll.251-302?

3). Where will the poor residents of the village have to go? What sort of life awaits them there? Why?