Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard nearing, Gray questioned if his own life would enter into a sort of rebirth cycle or, should he die, if there would be anyone to remember him. Gray's meditations during spring 1750 turned to how individuals' reputations would survive. Eventually, Gray remembered some lines of poetry that he composed in 1742 following the death of West, a poet he knew. Using that previous material, he began to compose a poem that would serve as an answer to the various questions he was pondering. On 3 June 1750, Gray moved to Stoke Poges, and on 12 June he completed "Elegy Written
A Funeral Rhapsody in Memory of General Bem groups of boys and girls. The poem is especially interesting because of its form. It was written in rhymed hexameter. All the lines are made up of fifteen (7+8) syllables according to the pattern ' x ' x x ' x || ' x x ' x x ' x. The rhapsody opens with a Latin citation of Hannibal Barca: "iusiurandum patri datum usque ad hanc diem ita servavi" Norwid's poem was often used and performed by Zbigniew Herbert and was translated into English by Adam Czerniawski. Mourner's Rhapsody was sung by Czesław Niemen and published in 1970 in Poland