An elegy is a mournful poem expressing loss, often for a person, but can also be for a way of life or human mortality. It has three elements: pain, praise, and consolation. Elegies are not eulogies or odes, and can be written in classical or modern forms. The traditional elegy has three stages: lament, admiration, and consolation. Pastoral elegies often use nature imagery, while modern elegies explore existential concerns.
An elegy is a mournful poem about the death of a person or, more rarely, a group. Elegies can also express a feeling of loss in a broader sense, such as for a way of life or a wistful reflection on human mortality. Its three elements are pain, praise and consolation. They are sometimes confused with praise and hate. Many classical poets wrote elegies for friends, lovers, or celebrities they admired.
The word elegy comes from the Greek elegos, which means song. Characteristic of these were elegiac couplets with a rising and falling rhythm, containing a complete idea. Classical poetry written in this metrical form originally covered a wide range of subjects, but eventually came to mean a song of mourning. The modern elegy can be a poem written in this metre, which does not necessarily express sadness or loss.
An elegy is not the same as a eulogy, which is a statement written in prose that is read aloud at a funeral, although an eulogy might suffice as a eulogy. An ode may also be composed for a deceased person or other subject, but its primary purpose is praise and acknowledgment. Epitaphs can be poetic, are usually short and written to be inscribed on gravestones.
Three elements found in a traditional elegy usually begin with a lament, an outburst of grief over the loss of the deceased. In the second stage, the poet shows admiration, listing impressive qualities and perhaps deeds in the person’s life. The poem then moves on to the third phase of consolation and comfort. This last element may have a more religious tone or consist simply of the poet’s acceptance of the finality of death and its place in nature.
Themes of nature featured prominently in the pastoral elegies, further linking death to its place in the natural order. In the elegy O Capitano! My Captain!, written in 1865 after the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman used nautical metaphors to liken Lincoln’s leadership to that of a captain guiding his ship, or the United States, through the “terrible voyage” of the American Civil War. This was an unconventional, albeit effective, departure from the Christian pastoral imagery of pastoral elegies. John Peale Bishop’s Hours, about the death of author F. Scott Fitzgerald, also used images of the sea to connect death to the natural world.
The British school of cemetery poetry in the late 1700s and early 1800s focused on broader themes of human mortality in a sometimes macabre way and did not conform to the classical framework. Modern poetry also tends to explore more existential concerns with philosophical observations about feelings, morality, or nostalgia. An example is Czeslaw Milosz’s Elegy for NN, in which he expresses to an unknown woman his longing and memories of her youth.
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