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The General [Wolfe]...repeated nearly the whole of Gray's Elegy...adding, as he concluded, that he would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French tomorrow.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Wolfe is quoted as reciting nearly all of Gray's Elegy, then declaring that he would rather have written that poem than win tomorrow's victory over the French. The remark sets quiet, lasting poetry against battlefield glory and suggests he valued the first more.
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