Elegiac

Elegiac

Elegiac refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. The Classical elegiac meter has two lines, making it a couplet: a line of dactylic hexameter, followed by a line of dactylic pentameter. Because the hexameter line is in the same meter as epic poetry, and because the elegiac form was always considered lower style than epic, elegists frequently wrote with epic in mind and positioned themselves in relation to epic.

Classical Poets

The first examples of elegiac poetry in writing come from classical Greece. The form dates back nearly as early as epic, with such authors as Archilocus and Simonides of Ceos from early in the history of Greece. The first great elegiac poet of the Hellenistic period was Philitas of Cos: Augustan poets identified his name with great elegiac writing. [cite book |chapter= Hellenistic poetry |author= A. W. Bulloch |editor= P.E. Easterling; Bernard M.W. Knox (eds.) |title= The Hellenistic Period and the Empire |series= The Cambridge History of Classical Literature |date=1989 |location=Cambridge |publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-35984-8 |pages=1–81 doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521210423.019 (inactive 2008-07-29).] One of the most influential elegiac writers was Philitas' rival Callimachus, who had an enormous impact on Roman poets, both elegists and non-elegists alike. He promulgated the idea that elegy, shorter and more compact than epic, could be even more beautiful and worthy of appreciation. Propertius linked him to his rival with the following well-known couplet:

"Callimachi Manes et Coi sacra Philetae," "in vestrum, quaeso, me sinite ire nemus."Propertius. "Elegies", [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/prop3.html#1 III.1] (in Latin). Retrieved on 2007-06-30.]

Callimachus' spirit, and shrine of Philitas of Cos, let me enter your sacred grove, I beseech you.

The 1st century AD rhetorician Quintilian ranked Philitas second only to Callimachus among the elegiac poets. [cite book |author=Quintilian |title= Institutes of Oratory 10.1.58 |url=http://honeyl.public.iastate.edu/quintilian/10/chapter1.html#58 |accessdate=2008-09-23]

The foremost elegiac writers of the Roman era were Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid. Catullus, a generation earlier than the other three, influenced his younger counterparts greatly. They all, particularly Propertius, drew influence from Callimachus, and they also clearly read each other and responded to each other's works. Notably, Catullus and Ovid wrote in non-elegiac meters as well, but Propertius and Tibullus did not.

English Poets

The "elegy" was originally a classical form with few English examples. However, in 1751, Thomas Gray wrote "" [http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc] . That poem inspired numerous imitators, and soon both the revived Pindaric ode and "elegy" were commonplace. Gray used the term "elegy" for a poem of solitude and mourning, and not just for funereal (eulogy) verse. He also freed the elegy from the Classical elegiac meter.

Afterward, Samuel Taylor Coleridge argued that the elegiac is the form "most natural to the reflective mind," and it may be upon any subject, so long as it reflects on the poet himself. Coleridge was quite aware of the fact that his definition conflated the elegiac with the lyric, but he was emphasizing the "recollected" and "reflective" nature of the lyric he favored and referring to the sort of elegy that had been popularized by Gray. Similarly, William Wordsworth had said that poetry should come from "emotions recollected in tranquility" (Preface to "Lyrical Ballads", emphasis added). After the Romantics, "elegiac" slowly returned to its narrower meaning of verse composed in memory of the dead.

In other examples of poetry such as Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott an elegiac tone can be used, where the author is praising someone in a sombre tone.

ee also

*Elegy
*Elegiac couplet

References


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  • elegiac — ELEGIÁC, Ă, elegiaci, ce, adj. Care are caracterele elegiei; p. ext. melancolic, nostalgic, trist, jalnic. ♦ (Despre poeţi) Care scrie elegii sau lucrări cu caracter de elegie. [pr.: gi ac] – Din fr. élégiaque, lat. elegiacus. Trimis de… …   Dicționar Român

  • Elegiac — E*le gi*ac (?; 277), a. [L. elegiacus, Gr. ?: cf. F. [ e]l[ e]giaque. See {Elegy}.] 1. Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as, an elegiac lay; elegiac strains. [1913 Webster] Elegiac griefs,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Elegiac — E*le gi*ac, n. Elegiac verse. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • elegiac — [el΄ə jī′ə kəlel ē′jē ak΄, i lē′jē ak΄; el΄ə jī′ak΄, el΄ə jī′ək] adj. [LL elegiacus < Gr elegeiakos < elegeia: see ELEGY] 1. Gr. & Latin Prosody of or composed in dactylic hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter)… …   English World dictionary

  • elegiac — index disconsolate, lugubrious Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • elegiac — англ. [илиджа/йэк] elegiaco ит. [эледжи/ако] élégiaque фр. [элежиа/к] elegisch нем. [эле/гиш] элегический, печальный …   Словарь иностранных музыкальных терминов

  • elegiac — 1580s, from M.Fr. élégiaque, from L. elegiacus, from Gk. elegeiakos, from eleigeia (see ELEGY (Cf. elegy)). Related: Elegiacally …   Etymology dictionary

  • elegiac — [adj] lamenting doleful, funereal, melancholy, mournful, sad, sorrowful, threnodial; concept 403 …   New thesaurus

  • elegiac — ► ADJECTIVE 1) relating to or characteristic of an elegy. 2) wistfully mournful. DERIVATIVES elegiacally adverb …   English terms dictionary

  • elegiac — also elegiacal adjective Etymology: Late Latin elegiacus, from Greek elegeiakos, from elegeion Date: 1542 1. a. of, relating to, or consisting of two dactylic hexameter lines the second of which lacks the arsis in the third and sixth feet b. (1)… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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