Explain Elegy: BA English Notes Semester 1

Elegy: in this article, you will learn what is an elegy. It is the most important topic for BBMKU English honours first semester students. You may check our other articles on this website.

Q. Explain Elegy.
Ans: An elegy is one of the oldest forms of poetry. It is a mourning song or song of lament. It is generally written about someone’s death. An elegy is an expression of sorrow, pain and despair.
In modern usage, an elegy is a formal lament for the death of a particular person. The term elegy is also used for solemn meditations, often on questions of death. An elegy is a sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. Although a speech at a funeral is a eulogy, you might later compose an elegy to someone you have loved and lost to the grave. The purpose of this kind of poem is to express feelings rather than tell a story.
An elegy is typically a poem of lament which expresses the gloomy thoughts of a person who is no more. It is commonly written in praise of the deceased and has an air of melancholiness around it. It is a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
An elegy begins with a lament of the loss of life of a person or loss of a thing sorrow is followed by the poet’s admiration for the person or thing lost, In the second part of the construction generally, the lost person’s qualities and remarkable performances or activities are endorsed. An elegy is a kind of a lyric that centres on the expression of sentiments, beliefs or opinions. The language and structure of an elegy are formal and ceremonial. An elegy may be based on either the transience of life of a person or the attractiveness and magnificence of somebody close to the speaker’s heart.

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