What is elegy
Video: Elegy | what is elegy | kinds of poem 2024, July
Elegy is a genre of lyric poetry. Initially, it was determined by the form of the poem, later the specific content and mood of the poem became dominant. Currently, elegy is a work with motives of sadness and thoughtfulness.
Instruction manual
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Originally the term elegy denoted a certain form of verse. In ancient Greek poetry, the couplets hexameter-pentameter were called so. In this form, works of the most diverse subjects were created. Archilochus wrote sad, but at the same time accusatory elegy, Solon invested philosophical content in this form, Tirtey and Kallin created warlike elegy, and Mimnerm used the form to analyze political topics.
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In the poetry of the ancient Romans, the term receives a somewhat different interpretation. Having a looser form, elegy acquire a more specific content - the number of love works increases. The most famous Romans who wrote elegies were Tibull, Catullus, Ovid.
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In imitation of antique patterns elegy were written in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. However, all this time the genre remains secondary. Its position has been changing since the middle of the 18th century. In 1750, the Englishman Thomas Gray wrote an elegy, which became a kind of model for authors from different countries. In Russia, its translation was made by V.A. Zhukovsky ("Rural Cemetery", 1802). Gray's poem became a kind of milestone, the moment from which sentimentalism developed. Poetry departs from clear laws and the dominance of reason, giving way to deep inner experiences. At this time, the term "elegy" refers to a poem riddled with sadness and thoughtfulness. Such works are characterized by motives of disappointment, loneliness, unhappy love, intimacy of experiences.
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In the second half of the XIX century, the genre of elegy loses its popularity, and this word is found only as the titles of cycles and in the names of individual poems.
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The term elegy is also used in music. It denotes the musical embodiment of an elegiac poem (for example, romances). Also, according to this model, exclusively instrumental works are created (elegy of Tchaikovsky, List, Rachmaninov).