- published: 17 Jun 2013
- views: 438815
In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
The Greek term elegeia (ἐλεγεία) originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs. The Latin elegy of ancient Roman literature was most often erotic or mythological in nature. Because of its structural potential for rhetorical effects, the elegiac couplet was also used by both Greek and Roman poets for witty, humorous, and satiric subject matter.
Other than epitaphs, examples of ancient elegy as a poem of mourning include Catullus' Carmen 101, on his dead brother, and elegies by Propertius on his dead mistress Cynthia and a matriarch of the prominent Cornelian family. Ovid wrote elegies bemoaning his exile, which he likened to a death. A notable example that established the genre in English literature is Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1750).
"Elegy" (sometimes spelled elégie) may denote a type of musical work, usually of a sad or somber nature.
Suddenly from the light of life to the darkness, swallowing pride and joy
On the wave of my thoughts sailing lost and cold - this lonely boy
Sinking to his inner world leaving this earth million miles behind
Crossing the borderline, time is not running on this side, not on this side
Night brings vapour where the spirits move
I'm alone with the echoes
I've sailed the sea of loneliness drifting in timelessness
Crossed the ocean, been at the mercy of the waves
Seen the beauty of dawn, admired it after storm
Felt the joy of rebirth and could smile again
Crawling back to the land of the living from silence of the tomb
But the black clouds return, leaving pale and fragile - this broken man
Night brings vapour where the spirits move
I'm all alone with the echoes
I've sailed the sea of loneliness drifting in timelessness
Crossed the ocean, been at the mercy of the waves
Seen the beauty of dawn, admired it after storm
Felt the joy of rebirth and could smile again