“Elegiac” refers to contemplative or mournful writing, often an elegy for someone who has died. In classical poetry, it refers to a couplet in dactylic meter, while in English poetry, it is a quatrain in iambic pentameter with an alternating rhyme scheme.
“Elegiac” is a term used to describe certain types of writing and can refer to two specific meters within the poem. As a general description, it often means a work that can be described as an “elegy,” which is often contemplative or mournful in tone and frequency. While not always, it can be written for someone who has died. In a classical context, the term “elegiac” refers to a couplet, two coupled lines in a poem, written in dactylic metres. This same term in reference to an English poem often indicates a poem composed of quatrains, four lines together, written in iambic pentameter.
A work that is described as “elegiac” in general terms typically indicates that it is an elegy. These types of works are often written for someone who has passed away, although this is not required, and usually take on an introspective tone. Such poems may be written in someone’s memory, mourning their passing, or simply as a work that contemplates the natural world in a way that is often more somber than celebratory.
There are also very specific forms of elegiac poetry that can be written or quoted, each with different but precise metrical structures. In classical writing, especially Greek or Roman works, this form of poetry consists mostly of couplets. A couplet is a pair of lines that often share an ending rhyme and usually function as a complete stanza.
Both lines in a classical elegiac structure are written in dactylic metre. This refers to the feet of each line, which are simply groups of syllables that are considered together to form patterns within the work. A dactylic foot, or dactyl, consists of one long syllable followed by two short syllables, although in English this has changed to one stressed and then two unstressed syllables.
The first line of an elegiac couplet is written in dactyl hexameter, meaning that the line consists of six feet, each created as a dactyl. The word “hexameter” includes the prefix “hex-” meaning “six,” indicating that the line has a meter of six feet, and “dactyl” describes those feet. The second line of the couplet is written in dactylic pentameter, which has only five feet, indicated by the prefix “penta-”, each consisting of one dactyl.
In contrast to this, an English elegiac work is typically written as a quatrain in iambic pentameter. A quatrain is a stanza consisting of four lines, and in this type of work they often have an alternating rhyme scheme; the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth. The word “iambic” describes a meter structure in which each foot of the line consists of an “iamb,” which is a short syllable followed by a long or unstressed syllable followed by a tonic. Iambic pentameter means five feet per line, and each foot is made up of one iambic.
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