What is an elegy in poem?

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. It usually contains a funeral procession, a description of sympathetic mourning throughout nature, and musings on the unkindness of death.

What is an elegy vs eulogy?

An elegy is a poem that reflects upon a subject with sorrow or melancholy. Often these poems are about someone who has died or other sorrowful subjects. A eulogy on the other hand is meant to offer praise. As part of a funeral service, a “eulogy” celebrates the deceased.

What are the types of elegy?

Elegies are of two kinds: Personal Elegy and Impersonal Elegy. In a personal elegy the poet laments the death of some close friend or relative, and in impersonal elegy in which the poet grieves over human destiny or over some aspect of contemporary life and literature.

How many lines is an elegy?

So taken were the Romantics with the form that they even reinvented the traditional elegiac stanza, defining it as a quatrain (four-line stanza) in iambic pentameter (five iambs per line), following an “ABAB” rhyme scheme.

Who is father of elegy?

John Milton’s “Lycidas,” considered the most famous pastoral elegy, mourns the death of the poet’s good friend Edward King. In the 17th century, John Donne, a contemporary of Milton’s, explored the genre further and addressed matters of human love, which to his metaphysically inclined mind often resembled death.

What are the three parts of elegy?

An elegy generally combines three stages of loss: first there is grief, then praise of the dead one, and finally consolation. The word elegy comes from the Greek word elegeia, which means “lament.”

What is the difference between elegy and lamentation?

As nouns the difference between lamentation and elegy is that lamentation is the act of lamenting while elegy is a mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation.

What is the difference between elegy and dirge?

As nouns the difference between elegy and dirge is that elegy is a mournful or plaintive poem; a funeral song; a poem of lamentation while dirge is a mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.