Elegy

An elegy is a poem of mourning and reflection, usually for a person who has died, that typically moves from grief toward some kind of acceptance or consolation.

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, / The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea". Gray's opening is slow and dim, and the whole poem sits in a churchyard thinking about ordinary lives that went unrecorded. That mood of quiet loss is what an elegy sets out to produce.

The shape of grief

Classical elegies were defined by their metre. In English the word came to mean a theme: mourning. A typical elegy moves through three beats.

• Lament. The speaker states the loss, often with images of nature in mourning.
• Praise. The poem remembers the person and what made them valuable.
• Consolation. The poem finds something to hold onto, whether memory, faith or the continuation of life.

The last beat is what separates an elegy from a plain expression of sorrow. The poem is not only crying out. It is working toward a place the speaker can stand.

Why it matters to a writer or editor

Writing about grief fails most often through sentimentality, telling the reader how sad to feel. The strongest elegies rely on concrete imagery: one coat on a hook, the sound of a herd going home. That is show, don't tell at its most important.

When editing an elegy, cut every line that names the emotion and keep the ones that show it. Check that the poem has a direction, so it does not just sit in one note of sorrow. And be careful with the ending, because a rushed consolation reads as false, and none at all can read as unfinished. The praising counterpart is the ode.

Read an example

Read an example: "Heroic Stanzas" by John Dryden (1658), a public domain poem on Bossfeed, written after the funeral of Oliver Cromwell.

Frequently asked questions

What are the usual stages of an elegy?

Traditionally lament, then praise of the person who has died, then consolation. Not every elegy follows all three, but the movement from grief toward a kind of peace is common.

What is a famous elegy?

Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751) is the best known in English. Tennyson's In Memoriam and Whitman's 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' are also classics.

Is an elegy always about a death?

Usually, though elegies can mourn a lost place, a lost time or a lost way of life.