Here are some key characteristics of elegiac poetry:
* Mournful tone: Elegy expresses deep sorrow and grief for the deceased.
* Focus on loss: The poem contemplates the loss of the individual and their impact on the world.
* Reflection on life and death: Elegy often explores broader philosophical themes like mortality, the meaning of life, and the nature of existence.
* Personal and public: While elegy focuses on a specific individual, it can also address larger social or cultural issues related to death and loss.
* Structure: Traditionally, elegies were written in specific forms like the Greek elegiac couplet (a combination of hexameter and pentameter lines) or the Latin elegiac distich (two lines with alternating meter). However, modern elegies can take various forms.
Examples of famous elegies:
* "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred Lord Tennyson: This long poem mourns the death of Tennyson's close friend, Arthur Hallam.
* "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman: This elegy mourns the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
* "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray: This poem reflects on the lives and deaths of ordinary people buried in a rural churchyard.
While elegy is most commonly associated with mourning the dead, it can also address other kinds of loss, such as the loss of a loved one, a job, a home, or even a way of life.