Compare and contrast these two poems by Clifton and Gray.The two poems are Lucille Clifton’s “At the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, South...

I am only able to answer one question, so I will compare
and contrast the themes of these two poems.

The two poems
deal with the topic of death. This is the commonality that they
share.

However, the theme of Gray's poem "Elegy Written in
a Country Churchyard" is that death is the equalizer of all people,
rich or poor, regardless of whether their graves are adorned with
elegance or poor markers. He asks about what separates those who are great in life and
those who die in humble circumstances: is it for want of opportunity that the poor were
never able to achieve the same greatness as others?

The
theme in "At the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, South Carolina, 1989" has a
completely different focus. This poem deals also with death; it draws attention to the
dead at the plantation who were never recognized as ever existing,
as opposed to being relegated to being rich or poor.

This
poem speaks about a plantation of enormous size, and that its history retold never
mentioned the slaves' hands that brought about its grandeur and success. Clifton asks
about the slaves on a tour, but no one seems to know anything...until they look at
"inventories." Inventories note their existence because slaves were considered property,
and female slaves were not counted, as they were not considered of any significance at
all. Clinton cannot fathom that these people who lived, worked and died—who left their
mark through their labors—were not even credited with existing, let alone with touching
the world in which they lived. At least in Gray's poem, the poor were afforded that
much.

In the first poem, Gray speaks to recognition in
death despite being poor or rich, but Clifton speaks to being recognized at all, rather
than ignored as if lives never mattered enough to be recalled at
all.