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Elegy
employ elegiac couplets. Note that, in translation, the poem loses its
DEFINITION original meter.
What is an elegy? Here’s a quick and simple definition: Heav'n knows, dear maid, I love no other fair;
In thee lives all my love, my heav'n lies there.
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, especially one
Oh! may I by indulgent Fate's decree,
mourning the loss of someone who died. Elegies are defined
With thee lead all my life, and die with thee.
by their subject matter, and don't have to follow any specific
form in terms of meter, rhyme, or structure.
Ele
Eleggy in English Lit
Liter
eraatur
turee
Some additional key details about elegies: In English literature, elegy is not defined by its use of elegiac meter as
described above. Until the 16th century, the definition of elegy in
• Because elegies focus on the emotional experience of the poet, English literature remained somewhat indeterminate, and often was
they are generally written in the first person. taken simply to mean a poem of serious reflection. During the 16th
• Typically, elegies end on a somewhat hopeful note, with the poet century, though, the elegy came to be more specifically defined as a
reconciling him- or herself to the death, and ultimately poem of grief and lamentation.
discovering some form of consolation. In the 18th century, the elegy flourished, particularly among English
• The poetic form known as the "elegiac stanza," which has a Romantic poets, who valued the form for its personal and emotional
specific meter and rhyme scheme, is different from an elegy. qualities. So taken were the Romantics with the form that they even
reinvented the traditional elegiac stanza, defining it as a quatrain
Ho
Howw tto
o Pr
Pronounc
onouncee Ele
Eleggy (four-line stanza) in iambic pentameter (five iambs per line), following
an "ABAB" rhyme scheme. Thomas Gray's famous 18th century poem,
Here's how to pronounce elegy: el
el-uh-jee
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," is an example of this type of
elegy—a form that, despite being defined by its elegaic stanzas, does
The Defining FFeeatur
tures
es of Ele
Elegies
gies T
Today
oday not have its own name.
For modern and contemporary poets, the elegy is a poem that deals
with the subjects of death or mortality, but has no set form, meter, or Here rests his head upon the lap of Earth
rhyme scheme. While modern elegies don't have to use any particular A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown.
meter or follow a particular form, they do typically follow a specific Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
thematic arc, moving from grief toward an acceptance of death. And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.

Many elegies initially express grief and sorrow, which the poet works Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,
through over the course of the poem before arriving at a consolatory Heav'n did a recompense as largely send:
conclusion about the inevitable and universal nature of death. He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear,
Oftentimes, the poet will find a silver lining in mourning by alluding to He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
the Christian notion that death marks the beginning of an eternal
afterlife in Heaven. Pas
asttor
oral
al Ele
Eleggy
Though the elegy is not a strictly-defined form, there is one particular
The His
Histtor
oryy of Ele
Eleggy kind of elegy whose definition is clearer: the pastoral elegy, which is
typically about a deceased shepherd.
Ancient Ele
Eleggy The pastoral elegy can be seen as an elegy written within the tradition
For most of history, the term "elegy" did not have any special of pastoral poetry, whose roots can be traced back to ancient Greek
relationship to the subject of grief or mortality. In ancient Greek and and Roman poetry about the rustic lives of rural-dwelling poets.
Latin verse, the elegy was a poetic form that was defined by a Pastoral poetry has been written throughout history, from ancient
particular metrical pattern called "elegiac couplets"—alternating lines times through today, and the pastoral elegy is just one type of
of dactylic hexameter (six dactyls per line) and dactylic pentameter pastoral poetry. Here are some of the features that define pastoral
(five dactyls per line). Some of the most famous elegies in ancient elegy:
Greek and Latin verse were written by Catullus and Ovid. Below is an • The deceased subject of the poem is often a shepherd, echoing a
excerpt of one of Ovid's many "love elegies," so-called because they tradition begun by the Roman poet Virgil, who was known for
portraying himself and others as shepherds in his poems.

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• It is common, even in pastoral elegies written in English, to is yet another demonstration of the tendency in elegy to seek,
include classical mythological figures in the poem (such as the through the writing of the poem, a sense of consolation in grief.
Muses), another homage to the ancient roots of the form.
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
• These poems typically begin with an expression of the poet's grief,
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
move on to contemplate death and mortality, and end with the
'Tis better to have loved and lost
poet coming to peace with death by acknowledging it as integral
Than never to have loved at all.
to the immaculate beauty of nature.

John Milton's 17th century poem "Lycidas," of which an excerpt Wor

Wordsw
dsworth'
orth'ss "Ele
"Elegiac
giac S
Sttanz
anzas"
as"
appears below, is generally regarded as the greatest example of The full title of this poem by the Romantic poet William Wordsworth
pastoral elegy in English literature. This passage, which comes from is "Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm,
the end of the poem, embodies the elegiac tradition of turning to Painted by Sir George Beaumont." The poem was supposedly written
consolation after lamentation; Milton implies that the drowned in the wake of Wordsworth's brother's death. In keeping with the
Lycidas (who represents a friend of Milton's who was shipwrecked) poem's form of elegiac stanzas, the rhyme scheme is ABAB and the
will find new life in Heaven. meter is iambic pentameter.

Weep no more, woeful shepherds, weep no more, Farewell, farewell the heart that lives alone,
For Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead, Housed in a dream, at distance from the Kind!
Sunk though he be beneath the wat'ry floor; Such happiness, wherever it be known,
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed, Is to be pitied; for 'tis surely blind.
And yet anon repairs his drooping head,
But welcome fortitude, and patient cheer,
And tricks his beams, and with new spangled ore
And frequent sights of what is to be borne!
Flames in the forehead of the morning sky:
Such sights, or worse, as are before me here.—
So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high...
Not without hope we suffer and we mourn.

EX
EXAMPLES
AMPLES Whitman'
Whitman'ss "When Lilacs Las
Lastt in the Door
Dooryyar
ardd Bloom'
Bloom'd"
d"
Walt Whitman wrote this famous elegy after the death of Abraham
Lincoln. Note that this elegy does not have a particular meter or
Ele
Eleggy: "The W
Wander
anderer"
er"
rhyme scheme.
This is an Old English poem by an unknown author, translated here
into modern English. The poem, written in the voice of a wanderer O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
who was once a nobleman but was forced out of his homeland by And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that
war, is an elegy in the broader sense of a "serious, meditative poem" has gone?
rather than a lament for the dead. It is about brokenness, loss, and And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?
the passage of time, rather than about any one person's death in
particular. Sea-winds blown from east and west,
Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea,
Where is the horse gone? Where the rider? till there on the prairies meeting,
Where the giver of treasure? These and with these and the breath of my chant,
Where are the seats at the feast? I’ll perfume the grave of him I love.
Where are the revels in the hall?
Alas for the bright cup!
Fros
ost'
t'ss "T
"To
o E.
E.T
T."
Alas for the mailed warrior!
Alas for the splendour of the prince! Using a variation on the elegiac stanza, Robert Frost wrote "To E.T." in
How that time has passed away, quatrains of iambic pentamer that follow an "ABCB" rhyme scheme
dark under the cover of night, instead of the traditional "ABAB." The following two stanzas are an
as if it had never been! excerpt of the longer poem.

I slumbered with your poems on my breast

Tennyson'
ennyson'ss "In Memoriam" Spread open as I dropped them half-read through
The following oft-quoted stanza is from Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Like dove wings on a figure on a tomb
Memoriam," perhaps the most famous elegy of all time. This excerpt To see, if in a dream they brought of you,

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I might not have the chance I missed in life WHY WRITER

WRITERSSU
USE
SE IT
Through some delay, and call you to your face
Unlike the classical traditions of epic poetry or medieval ballads, both
First soldier, and then poet, and then both,
of which use the third person to focus on figures from popular
Who died a soldier-poet of your race.
mythology and folklore, elegies are a deeply personal form of poetry
that typically make use of the first person to emphasize the private
Lamartine'
Lamartine'ss "L
"Lee Lac" emotional experiences of individuals. Elegies are a wonderful
Alphonse de Lamartine's famous 19th century elegy is translated here example of the ways in which poetry can serve a more personal and
from the French. emotional purpose for the poet, as many poets throughout history
have written elegies not only to commemorate a lost loved one, but
O Lake! Scarce has a single year coursed past. as a way of mourning and of processing their own grief. Part of the
To waves that she was meant to see again, process of writing an elegy, which is frequently made explicit in the
I come alone to sit upon this stone language of the poem, is the poet's struggle to make the mystery of
You saw her sit on then. death less overwhelming by addressing it directly and contemplating
its major and lasting impact on those who witness death and go on
You lowed just so below those plunging cliffs. living.
Just so you broke about their riven flanks.
Just so the wind flung your spray forth to wash
Her feet which graced your banks. OTHER RESOURCES
• The Wikipedia Page on Elegy: A somewhat technical explanation,
Bidart'
Bidart'ss "Golden S
Sttate"
with more details about elegies in ancient cultures.
This is a contemporary example of elegy, which is perhaps less
• The dictionary definition of Elegy: A basic definition that includes
admiring of its deceased subject than is typical of the form. The
a bit on the etymology of elegy (it comes from the Greek word for
passage below is excerpted from an elegy by Frank Bidart for his
"lament")
father.
• The 19th century Swiss composer Louis Niedermeyer set
Ruth, your last girlfriend, who wouldn’t sleep with you Lamartine's elegy Le Lac to music, capturing the doleful spirit of
or marry, because you wanted her the form.
to pay half the expenses, and “His drinking
almost drove me crazy—”
Ruth once saw you HO
HOWWT
TO
O CITE
staring into a mirror,
in your ubiquitous kerchief and cowboy hat,
ML
MLAA
say:
“Why can’t I look like a cowboy?” Bergman, Bennet. "Elegy." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 5 May 2017. Web.
31 Aug 2017.
You left a bag of money; and were
the unhappiest man Chic
Chicag
ago
o Manual
I have ever known well. Bergman, Bennet. "Elegy." LitCharts LLC, May 5, 2017. Retrieved
August 31, 2017. http://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-
terms/elegy.

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