 In 1882 , Edmund Gosse analyzed the reception of Gray 's poem : " It is curious to reflect upon the modest and careless mode in which that poem was first circulated which was destined to enjoy and to retain a higher reputation in literature than any other English poem perhaps than any other poem of the world written between Milton and Wordsworth . " He continued by stressing the poem 's wide acceptance : " The fame of the Elegy has spread to all countries and has exercised an influence on all the poetry of Europe , from Denmark to Italy , from France to Russia . With the exception of certain works of Byron and Shakespeare , no English poem has been so widely admired and imitated abroad and after more than a century of existence we find it as fresh as ever , when its copies , even the most popular of all those of Lamartine , are faded and tarnished . " He concluded with a reinforcing claim on the poem 's place in English poetry : " It possesses the charm of incomparable felicity , of a melody that is not too subtle to charm every ear , of a moral persuasiveness that appeals to every generation , and of metrical skill that in each line proclaims the master . The Elegy may almost be looked upon as the typical piece of English verse , our poem of poems ; not that it is the most brilliant or original or profound lyric in our language , but because it combines in more balanced perfection than any other all the qualities that go to the production of a fine poetical effect . " 
