Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. But now the word normally refers to the poems written on the subject of death of someone or great loss of some kind. In other words, an elegy is a poem that laments. The classical "pastoral" (gothale) elegies were formal mourning on the death of a fellow shepherd; such classical elegies have a structure of beginning with praying to poetic goddess, and developing with public call for mourning (bilouna), complaint against gods, description of the funeral procession and laying of flowers on the dead body, and ending with consolation. The shorter and less formal types of personal elegies are also called with the name of "dirge" (mrityugeet). Modern elegies like "Break, Break, Break" do not follow the many and strict conventions of the classical pastoral elegies, but they contain the elements of beginning with mourning and ending with stated or implied consolation. In Tennyson's present elegy, the speaker seems to be consoled by the idea of having his grief lightened by expressing it, at least. But grief dominates the idea of consolation in this poem. In most traditional elegies, the speaker ends the poem by saying that he will not cry any more because his friend has gone to heaven (or become immortal); he accepts the reality of life and glorifies the dead as a guiding spirit in the forest or society. But Tennyson is a typical Victorian whose poem is pessimistic and not balanced with the realization of the truth or some reason to be consoled.

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. Read More...

Ballad:originally a kind of folk song; also sung with music; now recorded in writing, and also regarded as literature/ poetry. Read More...

Blank verse: Blank verse refers to the poetic lines that use iambic pentameter without rhyming. Read More...

Classical Poetry:The classical or neo-classical poets of the eighteenth century had had made poetry more social than personal, more intellectual than emotional and imaginative, more rule-based than spontaneous. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. Read More...

Free verse: Free verse means poetry without rhyme-scheme and any standard or fixed rhythm. Read More...

Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is a pair of lines with iambic pentameter; the lines must also rhyme together. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...

Image: An image is considered to be a picture created in the mind by words. Generally images are divided as visual images and abstract images. Read More...

Imagery: Imagery is the general term for the use of ‘images’ in poetry. The use of all kinds of concrete, metaphoric and more abstract is called imagery. Read More...

Irony: Irony is an indirect way of criticizing things, and it can be done in several ways. The word ‘Irony’ comes from its Greek root ‘Eiron’, a dramatic character who spoke in ‘understatement’, pretending to be less intelligent. Read More...

Lyric: A lyric is a fairly short poem which is the expression of strong feelings (thoughts, or perceptions) of a single speaker in a meditative manner. Read More...

Metaphor:The term metaphor has two meanings. In its broad sense, it means any type of poetic comparison (also known as metaphorical language). Read More...