 During the 1970s , some critics pointed out how the lines of the poems were memorable and popular while others emphasised the poem 's place in the greater tradition of English poetry . W. K. Wimsatt , in 1970 , suggested , " Perhaps we shall be tempted to say only that Gray transcends and outdoes Hammond and Shenstone simply because he writes a more poetic line , richer , fuller , more resonant and memorable in all the ways in which we are accustomed to analyze the poetic quality . " In 1971 , Charles Cudworth declared that the elegy was " a work which probably contains more famous quotations per linear inch of text than any other in the English language , not even excepting Hamlet . " When describing how Gray 's Elegy is not a conventional elegy , Eric Smith added in 1977 , " Yet , if the poem at so many points fails to follow the conventions , why are we considering it here ? the answer is partly that no study of major English elegies could well omit it . But it is also , and more importantly , that in its essentials Gray 's Elegy touches this tradition at many points , and consideration of them is of interest to both to appreciation of the poem and to seeing how [ ... ] they become in the later tradition essential points of reference . " Also in 1977 , Thomas Carper noted , " While Gray was a schoolboy at Eton , his poetry began to show a concern with parental relationships , and with his position among the great and lowly in the world [ ... ] But in the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard these longstanding and very human concerns have their most affecting expression . " In 1978 , Howard Weinbrot noted , " With all its long tradition of professional examination the poem remains distant for many readers , as if the criticism could not explain why Johnson thought that " The Church @-@ yard abounds with images that find a mirrour in every mind " . He continued by arguing that it is the poem 's discussion of morality and death that is the source of its " enduring popularity " . 
