Gray's "The Epitaph": An Analysis In the Epitaph, Thomas Gray shows his discontent toward the way that life and death are categorized on this planet. He speaks of earth as a place which holds people for the time being that they are going through this grand cycle of what is called life. When somebody only "rests his head upon the lap of Earth" it is not a way of approving the way that people are laid down for their final resting. The Epitaph shows , properly titled, the lot about how people are being brought up and brought down in a dark sort of way. Someone's personal epitaph is