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elegy
elegy in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac verse (i.e., couplets consisting of a hexameter line followed by a pentameter line). The form dates back to 7th cent. BC in Greece and poets such as Archilochus, Mimnermus, and Tytraeus. Later taken up and developed in Roman poetry, it was widely used by Catullus, Ovid, and other Latin poets. In English poetry, since the 16th cent., the term elegy designates a reflective poem of lamentation or regret, with no set metrical form, generally of melancholy tone, often on death. The elegy can mourn one person, such as Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" on the death of Abraham Lincoln, or it can mourn humanity in general, as in Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." In the pastoral elegy, modeled on the Greek poets Theocritus and Bion, the subject and friends are depicted as nymphs and shepherds inhabiting a pastoral world in classical times. Famous pastoral elegies are Milton's "Lycidas," on Edward King; Shelley's "Adonais," on John Keats; and Matthew Arnold's "Thyrsis," on Arthur Hugh Clough. |
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"elegy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "elegy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-elegy.html "elegy." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-elegy.html |
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elegy
elegy, from the Greek, the word has been variously used with reference to different periods of English. In Old English a group of short poems in the Exeter Book whose subject is the transience of the world, are called elegies (see wanderer; Seafarer; Deor; Ruin). From the 16th cent. onwards the term was used for a reflective poem by poets such as Donne; later it was applied particularly to poems of mourning, and the general reflective poem, as written by Coleridge and Yeats, is sometimes called ‘reverie’. The great English mourning elegies are Milton's Lycidas (for E. King), Shelley's Adonais (for Keats), Tennyson's In Memoriam (for A. H. Hallam), M. Arnold's Thyrsis (for Clough); and Hopkins's Wreck of the Deutschland.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-elegy.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-elegy.html |
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elegy
elegy song of lamentation; poem in elegiac metre. XVI. — F. élégie — L. elegīa — Gr. elegeíā (sb. use of adj., sc. ōidḗ ode), f. élegos (flute-) song, lament, of unkn. orig.; see -Y3.
So elegiac pert. to elegy, written or writing in a metre consisting of alternate hexameters and pentameters. XVI. — late L. — Gr. |
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T. F. HOAD. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. T. F. HOAD. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-elegy.html T. F. HOAD. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-elegy.html |
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elegy
el·e·gy / ˈeləjē/ • n. (pl. -gies) a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. ∎ a piece of music in a mournful style. ORIGIN: early 16th cent.: from French élégie, or via Latin, from Greek elegeia, from elegos ‘mournful poem.’ |
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"elegy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "elegy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-elegy.html "elegy." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-elegy.html |
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elegy
elegy in Greek and Roman poetry, a poem written in elegiac couplets, as notably by Catullus and Propertius; in modern literature, a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead. The word is recorded from the early 16th century and comes via French or Latin from Greek elegeia, from elegos ‘mournful poem’.
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ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "elegy." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "elegy." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-elegy.html ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "elegy." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-elegy.html |
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elegy
elegy, élégie (Fr.). A song of lament for the dead or for some melancholy event, or an instr. comp. with that suggestion, such as Elgar's Elegy for Strings and Fauré's Élégie.
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MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-elegy.html MICHAEL KENNEDY and JOYCE BOURNE. "elegy." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. 1996. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-elegy.html |
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elegy
elegy
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"elegy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 10 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "elegy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 10, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-elegy.html "elegy." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-elegy.html |
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