Notes 1] First published, anonymously, 1751, under the title "An Elegy wrote in a Country Churchyard." The date of composition of the Elegy , apart from the concluding stanzas, cannot be exactly determined. The sole authority for the frequently repeated statement that Gray began the poem in 1742 is Mason's conjecture in the memoir prefixed to his edition of The Poems of Mr. Gray , 1775. The Elegy was concluded at Stoke Poges in June, 1750. (See letter to Walpole, June 12, 1750.) The churchyard as described by Gray is typical rather than particular; of the five disputed "originals" Stoke Poges bears the least resemblance to the graveyard in the Elegy . Five candidate churchyards for Gray's setting include Stoke Poges (unlikely), Upton (near Slough), Grantchester and Madingley (near Cambridge), and Thanington (near Canterbury), but the features might as readily be non-specific. curfew: originally rung at eight o'clock as a signal for extinguishing fires; after this practice had ceased, the word was applied to an evening bell. In his note to this first line Gray refers to Dante, Purgatorio , VIII, 5-6: "Squilla di lontano / Che paia 'l giorno pianger, che si muore." Back to Line Even thus, the keen ey'd falcon swift descends On Pallas' bird victorious; long he watch'd The tempting spoil, and she his rage defy'd, Close shelter'd in her ivy mantl'd tower ; Compell'd abroad, while circling slow she wheels In quest of food, and least expects the snare, Strait from his airy flight the