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- Dictionaryel·e·gy/ˈeləjē/
noun
- 1. a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
- 2. (in Greek and Roman poetry) a poem written in elegiac couplets, as notably by Catullus and Propertius.
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Elegy (which may be traced to the Greek word elegos, “song of mourning”) commonly refers to a song or poem lamenting one who is dead; the word may also refer somewhat figuratively to a nostalgic poem, or to a kind of musical composition.
Elegy, dirge, and eulogy serve similar purposes in relation to mourning and funerial services, but they are distinct from each other. An elegy is a poem that reflects on a subject or person through sorrow or melancholy. Elegies are typically poems about someone who has died.
ELEGY definition: 1. a sad poem or song, especially remembering someone who has died or something in the past: 2. a…. Learn more.
An elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. Although a speech at a funeral is a eulogy, you might later compose an elegy to someone you have loved and lost to the grave.
An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, especially one mourning the loss of someone who died. Elegies are defined by their subject matter, and don't have to follow any specific form in terms of meter, rhyme, or structure. Some additional key details about elegies:
elegy, meditative lyric poem lamenting the death of a public personage or of a friend or loved one; by extension, any reflective lyric on the broader theme of human mortality.
In English literature, the more modern and restricted meaning, of a lament for a departed beloved or tragic event, has been current only since the sixteenth century; the broader concept was still employed by John Donne for his elegies written in the early seventeenth century.
