Jesse Ball

As far as I can see, the best writers in the last two hundred years have been Whitman, Rilke, Proust, Kafka. Their best works: 'Leaves of Grass - 1855;' 'Duino Elegies;' 'The Captive & The Fugitive;' 'The Castle.

American Poet

Edward Hirsch

There's something really unnatural about losing a child, and there's something unnatural about having to write an elegy for your child, but I felt that I wanted people to know what he was like.

David Lammy

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' by JD Vance made me entirely rethink U.S. republicanism, Donald Trump and the American white working class.

British Politician

Jacqueline Woodson

To me, elegy suggests that there is hope, and in some respects you've moved past the loss and are able to deal with it and to write about it.

American Writer

The elegy does the work of mourning; it allows us to experience mortality. It turns loss into remembrance, and it delivers an inheritance.

David Whyte

Regret is a short, evocative and achingly beautiful word: an elegy to lost possibilities even in its brief annunciation.

English Poet

Natasha Trethewey

It took me years of attempts and failed drafts before I finally wrote the elegies I needed to write.

Elegy bears a respectful and solemn tone towards the deceased or the subject.

Tone of Respect

While often sad, elegies can also express admiration or reflect on positive memories.

Not Always Sad

Elegies may differ in style and form across cultures, reflecting various traditions.

Cultural Variations

An elegy often reflects on the past with a sense of longing or loss.

Nostalgic Reflection

Elegies can symbolize broader changes, such as the end of an era or lost customs.

Reflecting Change

Elegies are a way to process and articulate complex emotions associated with loss.

Emotional Expression

 The family published her work in a local newspaper, and in 1771, her elegy for renowned reverend George Whitefield captured the public’s imagination. The poem’s repetitive rhythms, dramatic religious references, and soaring spiritual language

Why did Phillis Wheatley...

 It was an elegy to disappearing landscape. Can we connect to deep time via sensory experience? This artwork, called “Totality,”