ENLIGHTENING Elegies
Shianne Lum
History on Elegies
Elegies are first traced back to 7th century B.C and originated in Greece. It even originated from the Greek term elegeia. Later Rome adopted it as a popular poem type and many Latin writers used this style of poetry such as Catullus and Ovid.
Purpose of an Elegy
The purpose of an elegy is to express loss through poetry and help with the mourning or grieving process. Elegies and eulogies are practically synonymous except eulogies honor someone's life and their best qualities and have a more positive tone whilst an elegy normally has a melancholy or grieving tone and is used to express loss.
Characteristics of Elegies
Elegies normally have very formal language and are structured formally and are usually solemn and have a melancholy tone. It will have a lot of expression behind it and will convey the author's thoughts (normally sad thoughts). It most often talks about life and beauty, something that was dear to the author, anger about death, and just the nature of life and death.
2nd Example of Elegy
Silence when i open the door
Silence when i close it again
No one to make a noisy fuss
No one to welcome me in
No one barks at the mailman
No one brings the little ball
No one chomps the squeaky toy
But love still comes to memories call
-Anonymous(from www.poetrysoup.com)
Works Cited
Academy of American Poets. "Poetic Form: Elegy." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
"Glossary Term: Elegy." Poetryarchive.org. The Poetry Archive, Nov. 2005. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. "The Elegy: Lyric Poems of Loss."PBworks.com. PowerNotes, 2003-2004. Web. 4 Dec. 2014.