 The poem connects with many earlier British poems that contemplate death and seek to make it more familiar and tame , including Jonathan Swift 's satirical Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift . But when compared to other works by the so @-@ called Graveyard poets , such as Blair 's The Grave ( 1743 ) , Gray 's poem has less emphasis on common images found there . His description of the moon , birds and trees dispels the horror found in them and he largely avoids mentioning the word " grave " , instead using euphemisms . 
