 The first version of the elegy is among the few early poems composed by Gray in English , including " Sonnet on the Death of Richard West , " his " Eton Ode " , and his " Ode to Adversity " . All four contain Gray 's meditations on mortality that were inspired by West 's death . The later version of the poem kept the stoic resignation regarding death , as the narrator still accepts death . The poem concludes with an epitaph , which reinforces Gray 's indirect and reticent manner of writing . Although the ending reveals the narrator 's repression of feelings surrounding his inevitable fate , it is optimistic . The epitaph describes faith in a " trembling hope " that he cannot know while alive . 
