John Hewitt's Blog

  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe to John Hewitt’s Blog by Email

Write an Elegy – 31p31d

Posted on October 8, 2014 by John Hewitt

Day 8 of 31 Poems in 31 Days

Because of the sores in his mouth,   
the great poet struggles with a dumpling.   
His work has enlarged the world   
but the world is about to stop including him.   
He is the tower the world runs out of.  
– From Dean Young’s Elegy on a Toy Piano

Writing an Elegy

Poetry has, from its beginning days onward, been a tool of remembrance. From Homer’s Iliad through Tennyson’s The Charge of the Light Brigade to Pinsky’s 9/11, poetry has been used to remember people and events, both heroic and tragic. Poems of this type are called elegies.

Taken at Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery  on Memorial Day 2014

Taken at Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Memorial Day 2014

As a form, the elegy is very flexible. The term elegy should not be confused with the similar term, eulogy, which is a speech given at a funeral. An elegy is a poem of mourning and reflection. The original elegies were written in elegiac meter. Elegiac meter consists of couplets composed of a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter. That traditional meter (we will discuss meter in greater depth soon) is no longer required for a poem to be an elegy. All that is required is that it remembers a person’s death or other tragic event such as a battle or a natural disaster.

Poems of this type tend to carry a lot of emotion. The feelings one has about a significant event, especially a tragic one, can be complex and even contradictory. You might mourn a friend or relative but still be angered by the choices they made. You might admire the heroism of battle but recognize its flaws. Poetry is one way to work through those emotions.

When approaching material of this sort, it can be emotionally draining but also cathartic. Many people carry around these emotions and thoughts without ever being able to express them or consciously deal with them. As a poet, you can at least put your thoughts on paper, which allows you to process those thoughts and come to some sort of emotional closure.

Today’s Poetry Assignment

Write an elegy about a person or event that is meaningful to you. You don’t necessarily have to approach the most tragic event in your life. Don’t try to take on an event that is still too difficult for you to deal with. Look for something that you can handle.

Today’s Recommended Poet

Dean Young is a poet whose influence seems to increase with each new work. His poetry tends toward the surreal, but is always insightful and often genuinely funny. His poem Elegy on a Toy Piano is written for fellow poet Kenneth Koch, one of the Twentieth Century’s true greats.

Poems on the web

  • Ode to Hangover
  • Bay Arena
  • Centrifuge
  • My Work Among the Insects
  • Sky Dive
  • Sources Of The Delaware
  • White Crane

Books by Dean Young

  • Bender: New and Selected Poems 2012
  • Embryoyo 2007
  • Elegy On Toy Piano 2005
  • Beloved Infidel 2004
  • Skid 2002
Posted in Poetry | 7 Comments
« Write a list poem that uses a single line for each item on the list – 31p31d
Write a poem using a specific meter »

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Welcome!

I am John Hewitt and this is my blog. I am a Content Strategist for a personal finance company. I also write fiction and poetry, which I publish here. I enjoy a lot of television shows, movies, and books which I also post about from time to time. I have a life and sometimes write about it.

This is my spot to talk about whatever I want, no matter how controversial or mundane.

About this blog

This is my personal blog. It reflects my thoughts and opinions and not those of any employers (past or present) or other affiliated parties. Any endorsements I make are my own.

I don’t use an ad service, but I do have affiliate links to Amazon if I talk about a book, show, or other item.

Also, I have no editor, and I sometimes make typos or otherwise write badly. Yes, I am a professional writer. Yes, I also make mistakes.

Unfollow me!

If you don’t like my views on politics, writing, or anything else, please unfollow me. If you don’t like the way I write, please unfollow me.

There’s no need to let me know. It won’t change anything about me or you. I don’t care how much traffic I get, so you aren’t hurting the site if you leave. Everything is fine. Just go do something you enjoy more than reading my thoughts.

Copyright and reuse

Unless otherwise attributed, all work on this site is my own and comes under general copyright. Please use attribution when quoting from my site or republishing any images.

Privacy note

Other than what Google Analytics tells me about my traffic in general, I do not collect information on users and I would never resell people’s personal information. I also use Disqus for comments. You’ll have to register with them if you want to comment, but they get your information, not me.

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© John Hewitt