Importance of the Pastoral Elegy

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Among the various types of poetry, lyric poetry is used to express feelings. Lyric poems have specific rhyme schemes and they seek to portray the emotions directly to the reader rather than to tell a story with actual characters and actions. The poets of a movement called modernism mocked the relevance of this genre of poetry. Modernism developed a similar tradition of lyrical expression, however, the purpose of a modernist’s poem was not only to convey emotion, but also to make an intellectual statement. It was the modernist’s thought that lyric poetry relied too much on making the poem harmonious, rather than intellectually complex. They wanted to move away from that simplicity and express the importance of certain poets and poetry’s impact upon the world. The pastoral elegy is a subgenre of the lyric poem, which combines aspects from both pastoral and elegiac poetry. The traditional elegy, a meditative poem with a melancholic tone, mourns the death of a person. An elegy is written mirroring the three stages of loss: lament, praise, and solace. An elegy seeks consolation for future generations, often conveying the importance of the person or his contributions. The pastoral poem is a genre of literature in which the poet uses various techniques to blend simplicity and sophistication. Together, the elegy and the pastoral take the pastoral conventions and relate them by expressing the poet’s grief. The pastoral elegy has several elements, including the expression of the poet’s grief, praise of the dead, uses of refrains, a rant against death, the effects of the death upon nature, and the poet’s acceptance of death and faith in immortality (Schwartz). Poetry cannot always directly console grief, however, embodying grief, it can help the mourners face it. Espada says that poetry is independent of time. He gives a specific example of some poetry that still has the
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