Essay on "Elegy"_Literary forms & Criticism

Unit-I
Poetry
"Elegy"

Definition

Elegy is a form of literature which can be defined as a poem or song in the form of elegiac couplets, written in honour of someone deceased. It typically laments or mourns the death of the individual.

Elegy is derived from the Greek work “elegus”, which means a song of bereavement sung along with a flute. The forms of elegies we see today were introduced in the 16th century. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” by Walt Whitman are the two most popular examples of elegy.

Features of Elegy

1.      Usually, elegies are identified by several characteristics of genre:

2.      Just like a classical epic, an elegy typically starts with the invocation of the muse and then proceeds by referencing to the traditional mythology.

3.      It often involves a poet who knows how to phrase the thoughts imaginatively in the first person.

4.      Questions are raised by the poet about destiny, justice and fate.

5.      The poet associates the events of the deceased with events in his own life by drawing a subtle comparison.

6.      This kind of digression gives the poet space to go beyond the main or crude subject to a deeper level where the connotations might be metaphorical.

7.      Towards the end the poet generally tries to provide comfort to ease the pain of the situation. The Christian elegies usually proceed from sorrow and misery to hope and happiness because they say that death is just a hindrance in the way of passing from the mortal state into the eternal state.

8.      An elegy is not always based on a plot.

     Function of Elegy

      Elegy is one of the richest literary forms because it has the capacity to hold emotions that deeply influence people. The strongest of the tools elegy uses is its reliance on memories of those who are no more. Most of the poets who wrote elegies were evidently awed by the frailty of human beings and how the world completely forgets about the deceased at some point. However, the function of elegy is not as limited as it is thought. Whenever we take a look at elegy examples, what come to mind are feelings like sorrow, grief and lamentation; but, a study of the Latin elegy tells us otherwise.

1. Elegy- its Nature

An elegy is a special kind of lyric. It is an expression of sorrow, woe or despair, In short, the elegy is a lament; a lyric of mourning, or an utterance of personal bereavement and sorrow and, therefore, it should be characterised by absolute sincerity of emotion and expression. John Milton's 'Lycidas' and Shelley's 'Adonis' are two examples of this form.

2. Elegy reflects Philosophy

An elegy is an expression of grief, and simplicity brevity, and sincerity are its distinguishing features. There are elegies which are confined to the expression of grief as, for example, The Burial of Sir John Moore, and Tennyson's Break, Break, Break. But more often than not, from an expression of personal grief, the poet passes on to reflections on human life-human suffering. The shortness of human life, and the futility of human ambitions. Sometimes Death is the inspiration and sole theme; at other times it is merely the common starting point from which poets have launched various themes-speculations on the nature of death.

3. Grey’s Elegy

Thomas Grey's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is one of the most popular elegies in the English language. In this elegy, the poet does not mourn the death of some particular friend or relative, but expresses his grief. At the sorry fate of the rude forefathers of the village, who die in obscurity, unknown, unsung. It is a magnificent and complex work of art, dignified and solemn in tone, and not an expression of personal grief.

4. Personal grief turn into sorry fate of humanity

Matthew Arnold's "Rugby Chapel" is the poet's direct expression of grief on the death of his father, and the elegy is characterised by sincerity and intensity of emotion. But from the expression of personal grief, the poet soon passes on to reflect on the sorry fate of humanity, and on the triviality and futility of human life. It thus becomes an embodiment not merely of the melancholy of the poet, but also of the pessimism and despair of the age in which he lived.

5. Personal grief turned into theology and philosophy

Tennyson's "In Memoriam" is a unique elegy in the English language. It is a collection of over a hundred poignant lyrics, united into a single whole by the poet's lament at the death of his college friend, Arthur Hallam. But along with the expression of personal grief, there also runs a theology and a philosophy, as the poet constantly reflects on the problems of human life and human destiny. The elegy is an epitome of the philosophical and religious thought of the age.

6. Dirge

The dirge is also a versified expression of grief like elegy. It differs from the elegy as it is short. Originally composed in commemoration of the dead and chanted in Roman funeral processions or banquets. Similar in intent, the Greek threnody and monody are also dirges, the latter sung by one person. In Shakespeare's The Tempest. The dirge appears as a poignant mournful Lyric when Ariel sings of Ferdinand's lost father. Monody is also used for an elegy or dirge. Milton's "Lycidas" is subtitled as "Monody'' and Matthew Arnold called his elegy on A.M. Clough "Thyrsis: A Monody".