Note 363-15 — ELEGY

This is perhaps the most famous stanza in the poem. The following story is told of General Wolfe as he was leading his troops to the daring assault on Quebec in 1759: “At past midnight, when the heavens were hung black with clouds, and the boats were floating silently back with the tide to the intended landing-place at the chosen ascent to the Plains of Abraham, he repeated in low tones to the officers around him this touching stanza of Gray’s Elegy. ‘Now, gentlemen,’ said Wolfe, ‘I would rather be the author of that poem than the possessor of the glory of beating the French to-morrow!’ He fell the next day, and expired just as the shouts of the victory of the English fell upon his almost unconscious ears.”