American Division Poetry . [ 10 ]

American Division Poetry . [ 10 ] 

Elegy  

A lament over the death of someone [ although elegy once referred to poems written in elegiac meter-lines that alternate hexameter and pentameter  ] .

An example of elegy is Thomas Gray’s “ Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” . Notice his use of the elegiac stanza [ four lines of iambic pentameter with an abab rhyme scheme .

Ex.   The curfew tolls the knell of parting day ,

               The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea ,

         The plowman homeward plods his weary way ,

                 And leaves the world to darkness and to me .

Elegies include some love poems about death .

Subtypes of elegy include :

 Dirges :  short songs expressing grief over someone .

 Pastoral elegy : Poems in which both the deceased and the mourners are presented as shepherds . These elegies often include mythology as part of the poetic structure .