elegy

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Related to elegy: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

elegy

a mournful or melancholy musical composition or poem written as a lament for one who is dead: The organist played a beautiful elegy at the memorial service.

Not to be confused with:

eulogy – an oral or written laudatory tribute; a set oration in honor of a deceased person; high praise or commendation: The minister gave a touching eulogy at the funeral.

el·e·gy

(ĕl′ə-jē)

n. pl. el·e·gies

1. A poem composed in elegiac couplets.

a. A poem or song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person.

b. Something resembling such a poem or song.

3. Music A composition that is melancholy or pensive in tone.

[French élégie, from Latin elegīa, from Greek elegeia, from pl. of elegeion, elegiac distich, from elegos, song, mournful song.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

elegy

(ˈɛlɪdʒɪ)

n, pl -gies

1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a mournful or plaintive poem or song, esp a lament for the dead

2. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) poetry or a poem written in elegiac couplets or stanzas

[C16: via French and Latin from Greek elegeia, from elegos lament sung to flute accompaniment]

Usage: Avoid confusion with eulogy

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

el•e•gy

(ˈɛl ɪ dʒi)

n., pl. -gies.

1. a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a lament for the dead.

2. a poem written in elegiac meter.

3. a mournful musical composition.

[1505–15; (< Middle French) < Latin elegīa < Greek elegeía, adj. derivative of élegos a lament]

elegy

A serious reflective poem, especially one lamenting a death.

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Noun

elegy - a mournful poem; a lament for the dead

lament

poem, verse form - a composition written in metrical feet forming rhythmical lines

elegy

noun lament, requiem, dirge, plaint (archaic), threnody, keen, funeral song, coronach (Scot. & Irish), funeral poem a moving elegy for a lost friend

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

رثاءقصيدَه رِثائِيّه

elegiklagesangsørgedigt

elegia

elegija

elégiagyászdal

harmljóî, tregaljóî

elegia

elegija

elēģija

elegi klagesang

elegia

элегия

elégia

elegi

ağıt mersiyesagu

挽歌哀歌

elegy

[ˈelɪdʒɪ] N → elegía f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

elegy

[ˈɛlɪdʒi] n (= poem) → élégie f
an elegy for sb → une élégie pour qn

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

elegy

n → Elegie f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

elegy

[ˈɛlɪdʒɪ] n → elegia

elegy

(ˈelidʒi) noun

a song or poem of mourning.

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References in classic literature ?

We say, for instance, Gray's Elegy, or Shakespeare's Sonnets.

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= slightly misquoted from Thomas Gray, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" verse 13}

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It is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon.

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Synopsis: "In the Flesh: Embodied Identities in Roman Elegy" by Erika Zimmermann Damer (Associate Professor of Classics and of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond) deeply engages postmodern and new materialist feminist thought in close readings of three significant poets (Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid) writing in the early years of Rome's Augustan Principate.

In the Flesh: Embodied Identities in Roman Elegy

[USA], Apr 5 (ANI): American actor Amy Adams is all set to star in Netflix's adaptation of 'Hillbilly Elegy'.

Amy Adams to star in 'Hillbilly Elegy'

Zimmermann places this motely crew, along with other non-idealized characters, at the center of elegy's political and intellectual project.

In the Flesh: Embodied Identities in Roman Elegy

Vance's Hillbilly Elegy defined Appalachia for many, with Vance lionized as the region's latter-day prophet.

Appalachian Reckoning; A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy

"Below Freezing: Elegy for the Melting Planet" by Donald Anderson (who is the Director of the Creative Writing Program at the US Air Force Academy) moves beyond misery and misunderstanding to take a literary approach to the debate.

Below Freezing: Elegy for the Melting Planet

(5) After pointing out the structural similarities to elegy in Satan's laments, Frey commented, "To a culture aware of the status of an exiled man, cut off from life's advantages and necessities, the story of Satan's fall must have been richly suggestive.

Counter-empathy and elegiac critique in the Old English Christ and Satan

These experiences informed her Elegy Series, a collection of scanned enlargements of details from her paintings.

Elegy Series

"Elegy" might be described as a memory play--not because it recalls the past but because it is a play that remembers.

Elegy

Issues of social, religious, cultural, economic and political nature converge in this sensationalized story, and are skillfully tailored to fit a popular lyric genre in the Renaissance: the elegy.