How far is Thomas Gray successful in creating an elegiac atmosphere in his "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"?

The elegiac atmosphere is established immediately in the poem with Gray's description of the countryside surrounding the cemetery and the time of day that makes up the poem's setting. The day is ending:

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,

The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,

The plowman homeward plods his weary way,

And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

The reference to "tolls the knell" suggests the slow and deep ringing of a funeral church bell. As the cattle return from pasture, their "lowing" creates a sense of softness and peace. The plowman is tired, moving slowly homeward. Darkness is falling. Everything in the opening stanza has connotations of fading light as quiet and stillness slowly descend upon the scene.

The second stanza continues the tone:

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight.

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

As the darkness gathers, the countryside fades from view. A "solemn stillness" reigns, except for the "droning" sound of a beetle in flight and the "drowsy tinklings" of herds with their cow bells moving in pastures far away and out of sight.

The only other sound that disturbs the stillness is introduced in the third stanza, that of a "moping owl" that can be heard as the moon shines down upon the "yonder ivy-mantled tower" where her secret nest can be found.

In these three stanzas, Gray establishes a somber atmosphere through rich sensory detail that perfectly suits the content and the tone of the elegy to follow.