[361-1] In some of our American towns and cities a curfew bell is rung as a signal that the children must leave the streets and go to their homes. Many years ago it was the custom in English villages to ring a bell at nightfall as a signal for people to cover their fires with ashes to preserve till morning, and as a signal for bed. The word _curfew_, in fact, is from the French, and means _cover fire_. [361-2] The word _knell_ suggests death, and gives the first mournful note to the poem. [361-3] The sheep are shut up for the night in the _folds_ or pens. What are the _tinklings_? Why should they be called _drowsy_? [362-4] The poem is supposed to have been written in the yard of Stoke-Pogis church, a little building with a square tower, the whole covered with a riotous growth of ivy vines. The church is in the country, not many miles from Windsor Castle; and even to this day the beautiful landscape preserves the rural charms it had in Gray's time. We must not suppose that Gray actually sat in the churchyard and wrote his lines. As a matter of fact, he was a very careful and painstaking writer, and for eight years was at work on this poem, selecting each word so that it should express just the shade of meaning he wanted and give the perfect melody he sought. However, he did begin the poem at Stoke in October or November of 1742 and continued it there in November, 1749; but it was finished in Cambridge in June, 1750. [362-5] _Reign_ here means _dominion_ or _possessions_. Why is the bird called a _moping_ owl? Why is her reign _solitary_? What word is understood after _such_ in the third line of this stanza? [362-6] _Rude_ means _uneducated_, _uncultured_, not _ill-mannered_. [362-7] A clarion is a loud, clear-sounding trumpet. [362-8] In the church are the tombs of the wealthy and titled of the neighborhood, and in the building and on the walls are monuments that tell the virtues of the lordly dead. It is outside, however, under the sod, in their narrow cells, that the virtuous poor, the real subjects of the poet's thoughts, lie in quiet slumbers. [362-9] What evening cares has the busy housewife? Was she making the clothes of her children, knitting, mending, darning, after the supper dishes were put away? [363-10] Where were the children? Were they waiting for their father's return? To whom would they run to tell of his coming? [363-11] The _glebe_ is the turf. Why should it be called _stubborn_? [363-12] _Jocund_ means _joyful_. [363-13] The word _Ambition_ begins with a capital letter because Gray speaks of ambition as though it were a person. The line means, "Let not ambitious persons speak lightly of the work the rude forefathers did." [363-14] The inevitable hour (death) alike awaits the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave.