Musing in the country churchyard among the simple graves of the villagers, the narrator of Gray's "Elegy" is led to imagine his own death and...

The poet/speaker is concerned with death and how it should humble people of all classes. He is genuinely pondering and even praising the humble lives represented by the lowly graves he sees, and he uses these meditations on death to consider his own epitaph. He will take the same approach and write his own epitaph with honesty and humility.

The speaker praises the farmers and "their useful toil." He says that the wealthy deceased people...

The poet/speaker is concerned with death and how it should humble people of all classes. He is genuinely pondering and even praising the humble lives represented by the lowly graves he sees, and he uses these meditations on death to consider his own epitaph. He will take the same approach and write his own epitaph with honesty and humility.

The speaker praises the farmers and "their useful toil." He says that the wealthy deceased people should not mock nor fault ("impute," line 37) the poor if they have no trophies nor any grand tombstones. The poor perhaps did not have the opportunity to achieve fame and fortune. "Perhaps in this neglected spot was laid / Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire; / Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed." The speaker certainly is making the point that the poor lived lives just as useful and full as those of the rich. Had they other opportunities, they might have garnered trophies and fame. But trophies and monuments are irrelevant after death. Death is the great equalizer. Everyone dies. An overarching theme in this context is that everyone should live life to the fullest, regardless of social class. A grand tombstone might say something about the deceased person's wealth, but it doesn't say much about the substance of that life. A relatively unknown farmer might easily have led a more meaningful life.

The speaker admires the difficult but rewarding lives of these humble people, and he criticizes the wealthier or more famous people who seem to need some glorious monument. So, when he expresses humility in his own epitaph, it seems that he is showing solidarity with the poor, humble people of the graveyard. In the epitaph, he notes that he's had no fame and no fortune. He has lived a somewhat sad and difficult life. To whoever gazes upon his epitaph, his wish is that he/she will not wonder about his merits or flaws. Since he is now dead, it serves no purpose to judge his successes and failures. By this point, it is in God's hands. Dying without fame and fortune, he expresses his camaraderie with the humble lives he's described in earlier stanzas.