Let not Ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
The short and simple annals of the Poor.
These lines have been quoted from "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", composed by Thomas Gray, an eighteenth century poet. Here is a criticism of the ambitious and sophisticated people as well as glorification of the humble villagers buried in the churchyard.
These lines occur in the poem after the setting of a gloomy mood for the mourning of the death of those buried in the country churchyard. Usually the aristocratic and ambitious people ignore the poor villagers, whether living or dead. They also mock at the little achievements of these deprived people. Before starting to narrate the simple history of the dead villagers, the poet requests those people not to ignore and hate the life-sketch of the humble villagers. Maybe these people were poor, maybe they did not have glorious life on earth, and maybe they led a low life but they do not deserve hateful negligence from the ambitious and sophisticated people. The poet's inartificial sympathy for the dead villagers is evident in these lines. These humble people had been satisfied with whatever small things they cald achieve. They had been unknown to the civil world. But still they were happy in their little world and left behind a simple and humble history, which should be duly honoured.
