Elegy
The elegy, a type of lyric poem, is
usually a formal lament for someone's death.
The term elegy is sometimes used more widely. In antiquity it referred to anything
written in elegiac meter, which
consisted of alternating lines of pentameter and hexameter.
The category can include the threnody, the monody,
the dirge, and the pastoral elegy. The last of
these, an important Renaissance form, combines elements of the
verse pastoral with the elegiac
subject.
From the Guide to Literary Terms by Jack Lynch.
Please send comments to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.
Note: This guide is still in the early stages of development. Bear with me.