Elegiac

Word ELEGIAC
Character 7
Hyphenation e le gi ac
Pronunciations /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪæk/

Definitions and meanings of "Elegiac"

What do we mean by elegiac?

Of, relating to, or involving elegy or mourning or expressing sorrow for that which is irrecoverably past. adjective

Of or composed in elegiac couplets. adjective

In ancient prosody, an epithet noting a distich the first line of which is a dactylic hexameter and the second a pentameter, or verse differing from the hexameter by suppression of the arsis or metrically unaccented part of the third and the sixth foot, thus:

Verses or poems consisting of elegiac distichs are called elegiac verses or poems (elegiacs); poetry composed in this meter, elegiac verse or poetry (the elegy); and the writers who employed this verse, especially those who employed it exclusively or by preference, are known as the elegiac poets. Elegiac verse seems to have been used primarily in threnetic pieces (poems lamenting or commemorating the dead), or to have been associated with music of a kind regarded by the Greeks as mournful. Almost from its first appearance in literature, however, it is found used for compositions of various kinds. The principal Roman elegiac poets are Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid. In modern German literature the elegiac meter has been frequently used, especially by Goethe and Schiller. Coleridge's translation from the latter poet may serve as an example in English.

Belonging to an elegy, or to elegy; having to do with elegies.

Expressing sorrow or lamentation: as, elegiac strains.

A pentameter, or verse consisting of two dactylic penthemims or written in elegiac meter. noun

A succession of distichs consisting each of a dactylic hexameter and a dipenthemim; a poem or poems in such distichs: as, the Heroides and Tristia of Ovid are written in elegiacs. See I.

Elegiac verse. noun

Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation adjective

Used in elegies adjective

Of, or relating to an elegy. adjective

Expressing sorrow or mourning. adjective

A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter noun

Expressing sorrow often for something past adjective

Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy adjective

A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of dactylic hexameter followed by a line of dactylic pentameter.

Synonyms and Antonyms for Elegiac

  • Antonyms for elegiac
  • Elegiac antonyms not found!

The word "elegiac" in example sentences

It is in Latin elegiac verse, and as being directed against ambition and discontent may be compared with the first satire of Horace. ❋ Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange (1873)

Othos; six comedies, the praises of the Blessed Virgin, and St. Dennis in elegiac verse, with other works. ❋ Unknown (1799)

His surviving poems are all written in elegiac couplets, with the exception of the Metamorphoses, which is in hexameters. ❋ Unknown (1793)

Irina recounted Rostov’s history in elegiac tones. ❋ Unknown (2006)

I sensed, at once, his feel for the period, but I was a long time understanding the quality in him which ultimately made the film the triumph that it is: that is, his elegiac sense. ❋ Larry McMurtry (1987)

There remain also a few pagan lyric poems, which are all not only somber like 'Beowulf' but distinctly elegiac, that is pensively melancholy. ❋ Robert Huntington Fletcher (N/A)

A great variety of verses is used in the epitaphs, but the dactylic hexameter and the elegiac are the favorites. ❋ Frank Frost Abbott (1892)

The natural conclusion would be either that this sort of poem ought to be rejected, or that, in tracing here the idea of elegiac poetry, we have granted far too much to what is arbitrary. ❋ Johann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller (1782)

In the sentimental kind, and especially in that part of the sentimental kind which we name elegiac, there are but few modern poets, and still fewer ancient ones, who can be compared to our Klopstock. ❋ Johann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller (1782)

Poetry of the elegiac variety is hardly my thang— though I know how to fit the word "elegiac" into a sentence, I can't actually compose a poem around it— but I do know how to sing the blues. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Have you noticed how 'elegiac' now has no other use in life except on posters where some Finnish director has decided to give us his arthouse version of a lonely boy making friends with a dying bird? ❋ Ms Robinson (2008)

And even if stated in a kind of elegiac or tragic negative, other elements are structured around narratives of completion: lover meeting and kissing, trees leafing, ritual sacrifice being performed, citizens leaving and then returning to their town. ❋ Unknown (2003)

Cross Reference for Elegiac

  • Elegiac cross reference not found!

What does elegiac mean?

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