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Well today is one of those memorable days for the calendar. It is the tail end of Samhain when the membrane between the living and those who have passed over is believed to be at its most permeable. From this tradition followed the Christian “All souls day” and a contemplation of the dead, which in Mexico and other countries is marked by feast and festivity for departed relatives.

Thus it is a rich source of poetry too and here is that most notable poet, W.B. Yeats with his “All Souls Night” recalling several dead friends:-

“…Horton’s the first I call.  He loved strange thought
And knew that sweet extremity of pride
That’s called platonic love,
And that to such a pitch of passion wrought
Nothing could bring him, when his lady died,
Anodyne for his love.
Words were but wasted breath;
One dear hope had he:
The inclemency
Of that or the next winter would be death.
Two thoughts were so mixed up I could not tell
Whether of her or God he thought the most,
….” [more]

Whilst Frances Bellerby recalls an unnamed someone on “All Souls Day” and in so doing brings the character back to life in this extract:-

“Let’s go our old way
by the stream, and kick the leaves
as we always did, to make
the rhythm of breaking waves…

Yellow of Brimstone Butterfly,
brown of Oak Eggar Moth –
you’d say. And I’d be wondering why
a summer never seems lost

if two have been together
witnessing the variousness of light,
and the same two in lustreless November
enter the year’s night…

Ah, but you were always leaf-light.
And you so seldom talk
as we go. But there at my side
through the bright leaves you walk.

And yet – touch my hand
that I may be quite without fear,
for it seems as if a mist descends,
and the leaves where you walk do not stir.” [more]

And so a most fitting poetry style for our prompt today is to write an Elegy. That term has been extended and de particularized to many poems of lamentable regret but we will be writing in the particular about:

Topic:

  • someone close to you
  • someone vaguely known e.g a neighbour
  • someone totally unknown except through deeds or writings eg a dead poet perhaps like the recently deceased Louise Gluck
  • a group of people (eg as in Gray’s “Elegy written in a country churchyard”)

Form: Must include these three elements, ordered thus:

  • lament –expressing grief and sorrow
  • praise – admiration of the deceased
  • consolation and solace

It can be written as 3 distinct sections/stanzas or melded together but keeping the order above

Style: The elegy can be written in any metre the poet chooses.
Those of you who prefer more stricture and guidance might like to try the Elegiac metre

  • rhyming coupleted lines (AA;BB;CC etc though not separated into couplets)
  • written in dactylic hexameter and pentameter

Glossary: see dactylic hexameter [6 feet of dum-de-de] ; pentameter (5 feet of dum-de)

Useful Links: see MTB: The Elegy – dVerse 2nd June 2016

So once you have posted your poem according to the topic’s guidelines above, do add it to Mr Linky below then go visiting and reading other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.