Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
These lines have been taken from the famous elegy, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", composed by Thomas Gray, an eighteenth century poet. Here is a criticism of the rich people.
The poet knows the habit of the rich people who hate or ignore the simplicity of the humble villagers. He has reminded them earlier that death equalises the rich and the poor, and therefore, it is meaningless to ignore the dead villagers. It is also meaningless to raise ornamented tombs at the graves of the rich or sing songs very loudly in their praise. Here in these lines, the poet reminds them that whatever is done at the graveyard in memory of the dead, it will not help bring the dead back to life. Neither the funereal urn with descriptive epitaph nor the life like statue can bring back life to the dead body. Similarly, the praising songs in honour of the dead cannot bring back the bodies that turned into dust, nor the flattery at the grave can satisfy Death who may send the dead back to life. So all these showy urns, statues, praise and flattery are meaningless. The humble villagers, for whom nobody cares, are in no way inferior to the rich.
