The term elegy derives from Greek word elegos (Latin: elegus) which means a song of bereavement. It was typically accompanied by the music of a flute (aulos) in antiquity. The adjectival form of the word is "elegiac." The typical meter of the elegy in antiquity was the elegiac couplet consisting of one line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter, and any poem in this form could be called an elegy. Coleridge attempted an English equivalent of the meter in the following couplet:
In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column:
In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.
In English, an elegy remains a poem of bereavement, normally mourning the death of a person, although sometimes a more generalized lamentation. The meter of the poem may vary. Among the most famous elegies in English are Tennyson's "In Memoriam" and Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
An elegy is a sorrowful poem that bemoans the death of a person, a particular life event, or even a way of life that no longer exists. Written in a somber or mournful tone, intended to elicit strong emotion in its readers or listeners, an elegy is usually comprised of three parts: an initial lamentation for its subject, a section that honors or idealizes the dead, and finally, a section that offers comfort or hope. Some examples of elegies include When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (Walt Whitman), In Memory of W. B. Yeats and Stop All the Clocks (W. H. Auden), Because I Could Not Stop for Death (Emily Dickinson), and Dirge without Music (Edna St. Vincent Millay).
Although both concern themselves with loss, an elegy differs from a eulogy. The former, traditionally written in couplets, has a set rhyme scheme, whereas the latter is usually free verse read either at graveside or at a memorial service honoring the decedent.
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