The Presentation Focus on the Elegy, a type of Poem. With an original poem inside

Elegy
___________________________
Foundations of Poetry
Daniela Richards

What is an elegy?
An elegy is a type of poetry in
which the poet or speaker
expresses grief, sadness, or loss.

Overview
What is an elegy?
The history of the elegy
Contributors
Features of an elegy
Sample of an elegy
Original piece.

Presentation Timeline
What is an Elegy? History Contributors Features Sample Elegy Original Piece

What is an elegy?
It is a form of poetry:
• which the poet or speaker expresses grief, sadness, or loss.
• that is traditionally written in response to the death of a person
or group. (Thorsen, 2013)
• of serious reflection
• Including texts which foster somber and pessimistic tones
• that includes textual art that monumentalize
• that explicitly laments the dead. (Oxford Handbook of the
Elegy, 2010)

Elegy Ode and Eulogy
Purpose：
• the ode serves to exalt
• a speech or piece of writing that praises
someone or something highly, especially
someone who has just died.
• is to the reflective mind covering regret
for the past or desire for the future,
sorrow, and love.

• A poem that
expresses grief,
sadness, or loss
and reflection.

• Elegy may be traced to the Greek word elegos,
• Formed using the Greek roots eu “good”
and logos ”speech”
• In ancient Greek and Latin, the elegy was a
poetic form of poetry that was defined by a
particular metrical pattern called "elegiac
couplets“
• According to Allan in The Greek Elegy and
Iambic (2019) even in Ancient Greece history, it
was not known who originally invented the
form.
History

• Around the 7th Century BC poets began to
use the form for erotic poetry,
• Many Latin and Greek poets used the form
for witty observations and war stories.
• After the fall of the Roman Empire, the
Elegy fell out of fashion
History

• Until the post-Renaissance the elegy
found popularity again
• Time when there was renewed
interest in Roman culture, and their
poets
History

• Fast forward to modern English
literature up to the 16th century
• The definition of elegy in English
literature remained indeterminate
• During the same 16th century it came
to me more specifically defined as a
poem of grief and lamentation.
History

• A poem that
expresses grief,
sadness, or loss
and reflection.
• Traced back to
the Greeks
• Popular among
the Romans
• Made a came
back during
the
Rennassaice
• Popular
throughout
then till today

Contributors
Three of the earliest contributors to the elegy are:
Mimnermus
Flourished around the time of c. 630 BC.
Greek elegiac poet
He is believed to began to use the form for
erotic poetry
Ovid
Full name: Publius Ovidius Naso
Born March 20, 43 BCE, in the Roman
Empire
Known for his Ars
amatoria and Metamorphoses
Wrote a number of Elegies about his
exile
Thomas Gray
26 December 1716
English poet, letter-
writer, classical, scholar, and professor
at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Known for his Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard

• A poem that
expresses grief,
sadness, or loss
and reflection.
• Traced back to
the Greeks
• Popular among
the Romans
• Made a came
back during
the
Rennassaice
• Popular
throughout
then till today
• 3 of the earliest
contributors
• Minernerous-
Greek
• Ovid- Roman
• Thomas Gray-
English

The original form:
• The couplets would consist of one line in hexameter (
six beats) followed by one line in pentameter (five
beats).
• The rhythm must adhere to the below:
– (-) – (-) – (-) – (-) – (-) – –
– (-) – (-) – – . . – . . –

– (-) – (-) – (-) – (-) – (-) – –
– (-) – (-) – – . . – . . –
long
syllables
short
syllables
1 long or
2 short
syllables

18th-century elegiac stanza contained :
• It is a quatrain (four lines)
• It contains an ABAB rhyme scheme
• Each line is written in iambic pentameter

Exercise
Can you spot the Iambic
word?

Contemporary elegies contain :
• Different meters
• Different rhyme schemes
• No set or formal structure
• Stages of grief: sorrow,
admiration, and acceptance.

• A poem that
expresses grief,
sadness, or loss
and reflection.
• Traced back to
the Greeks
• Popular among
the Romans
• Made a came
back during
the
Rennassaice
• Popular
throughout
then till today
contributors
• Minernerous-
Greek
• Ovid- Roman
• Thomas Gray-
English
• Initially had a
standard form
• Changed over
the years to
focus more on
the subject
matter of
sadness and
reflection than
adhering to
strict rhymes
and meters.

The Death Of A Soldier -
Wallace Stevens
Sample Elegy

Life contracts and death is expected,
As in a season of autumn.
The soldier falls.
He does not become a three-days’ personage,
Imposing his separation,
Calling for pomp.
Death is absolute and without memorial,
As in a season of autumn,
When the wind stops.
When the wind stops and, over the heavens,
The clouds go, nevertheless,
In their direction.
The Death of a Soldier

Structure:
• No traditional form or meter
• Loose iambic meter
• Four stanzas of three lines
• The repetition of the stanza forms

Devices:
• Extended Metaphor
• Visual imagery
• Biblical allusion

Tone:
• Sombre
• Reflective
• Death
• Loss

What is an Elegy? History Contributors Features Sample Elegy
• A poem that
expresses grief,
sadness, or loss
and reflection.
• Traced back to
the Greeks
• Popular among
the Romans
• Made a came
back during
the
Rennassaice
• Popular
throughout
then till today
contributors
• Minernerous-
Greek
• Ovid- Roman
• Thomas Gray-
English
• Initially had a
standard form
• Changed over
the years to
focus more on
the subject
matter of
sadness and
reflection than
adhering to
strict rhymes
and meters.
• Death of a
Soldier
• No structured
form
• Conveys death,
loss, reflection
and
inevitability
through
various literary
devices

They will use you! she yelled
They will find you, when your light burns brightest
And they will come
For they are attracted to the light, maybe even worst than the moths of the
night
And they will use you
For they are attracted to your happiness, , your aura , your smile which
embodies pure joy
Your innocence, your grace, so naïve
You won’t sense the ploy
Lantern in the Dark

And like a beast in the night, hideous, treacherous and vain
Hold dear your heart, your self-worth, remember who you are, beware or else
be slain.
For it is weak, it is needy, it needs your good light
It latches on to you like a parasite
You are artless, you are pure
unknowingly being the host
It will take! take! take!
What it valued most
You will know the meaning of "Alone"
And in that darkness, which once bred pure light
It becomes cold and damp insensitive to insight
You are sucked dry as the vampire took every drip, it’s last drop

You will fracture, clinch and cry out for pain
It was the vessel of nothing but bane
and in this lonely hour
U will cry out its name
But it can’t hear you now, you have been a fool!
It took what it needed, now your left in this pool
Of colorless pain, drenched, weak, defeated.
That’s how fools are treated.
But
U cannot pause now, time won’t wait for you
You must get up , kneel!
That much you may do
For you are young, you will heal but it will tear you apart so
Be strong for even the worst too must go
So it too shall pass as all bad things do
Lesson learnt? she yelped

She stopped and perused
She stepped back from the mirror
For too long subdued
But she knows, she remembers, she bares all the blame
Rewriting her past, it’d all be the same
For a flame, a fire or even a spark
Like moths of the night
It
Will always search for your lantern in the dark.

Conclusion
• The elegy is a poem that expresses grief, sadness, or loss
and reflection.
• It can be traced back to the Greeks however the original
creator is not known.
• 3 of the earliest contributors are Minernerous, Ovid, and
Thomas Gray.
• Changed over the years to focus more on the subject matter
of sadness and reflection than adhering to strict rhymes and
meters
• An example of the Elegy is the Death of a Soldier

Resources
• Aidan. (2018, March 19). Iambic Pentameter Explained [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 14, 2022,
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuXAbRAcvbw&feature=youtu.be
• Allan, W. (2019, October 17). Greek Elegy and Iambus: A Selection (Cambridge Greek and Latin
Classics). Cambridge University Press.
• Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2017, June 29). Mimnermus. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mimnermus
• Kenney, E. John (2022, March 28). Ovid. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ovid-Roman-poet
• The Death Of A Soldier Wallace Stevens. (2019, Dec 05). Retrieved from
https://paperap.com/paper-on-wallace-stevens-death-of-a-soldier-646/
• The Death of a Soldier by Wallace Stevens. (2009, February 18). [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October
14, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHlWHujPIig&feature=youtu.be
• Thorsen, T. S. (2013, December 23). The Cambridge Companion to Latin Love Elegy (Cambridge
Companions to Literature) (1st Edition). Cambridge University Press.
• Weisman, Karen, ed. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy. Oxford handbooks of literature.
Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199228133.001.0001. ISBN 9780199228133.

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