Furthermore, the opening lines bring to mind the image of something coming to its usual end. Also, the images of a housewife that is busy or “no children run to lisp their sire's return,” (Line 23) helps us understand how humans always have a tendency to imagine how their lives might have been. It is, certainly, quite natural to have this kind of wonderment.
Probably, the most important theme of Gray’s poem is the idea that everyone should remember that he/she must die. As Gray considers this feeling, he concludes that in death there are no differences between the common people and the well-known. Everyone is bound to die and that everyone is equal in the grave no matter if they were rich or poor. In fact, as the speaker continues his observation of the unfamiliar people in the graveyard, he reveals that:
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid/Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; Hands, that the rod of empire might have swayed or waked to ecstasy the living lyre. But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page/Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; Chill Penury repressed their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul, (Lines 45-52).
So basically what the speaker is saying is that underneath these graves there may be souls much better than those of the well-known graves. The only thing that prevented their development was the lack of wealth and opportunity. Furthermore, the speaker continues by saying that the graves of the unknown may be the nobler ones for living more pure, more honest lives, and not having achieved fame at all:
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool, sequestered vale of life, They kept the noiseless tenor of their way, (Lines 73-76).
So basically, all of the people that are buried in the graveyard are all equal and not superior to each other. This idea is one that that everyone can appreciate, which is that the great equalizer, the grave, comes to all. Moreover, there are lines such as “The paths of glory lead but to the grave,” (Line 36) helping to strengthen the idea that what is wondered about awaits all human beings everywhere, with power or without power. Gray uses these kinds of lines to help readers better understand that in death, all people are family, facing the same great unknown.
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