15+ Mournful Elegy Poems

(15 to start, 125+ to explore)

An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead. Its origins trace back to traditional Greek literature, where it was a mournful poem or song.

While elegies often mourn a person’s death, they can also express a melancholic sentiment over other forms of loss. An elegy generally combines three basic stages: lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, praise and admiration of the idealized deceased, and consolation and solace.

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First Death in Nova Scotia

by Elizabeth Bishop

Bishop’s poem, ‘First Death in Nova Scotia’, is the detailed description of a child’s first encounter with death and the emotions this discovery causes.

This poem fits the elegy genre as it mourns the loss of young Arthur, blending sorrow with reflection. The child’s perspective brings a tender, personal touch, using symbols like the stuffed loon and frosted coffin to express grief. Elegies honor the dead, and here, Bishop transforms a small goodbye into a poignant meditation on mortality.

Below them on the table

stood a stuffed loon

shot and stuffed by Uncle

Arthur, Arthur's father.

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When Tomorrow Starts Without Me

by David Romano

Romano’s ‘When Tomorrow Starts Without Me’ offers solace in grief, exploring love and afterlife, reassures that loved ones remain forever.

This is a heartfelt elegy that beautifully balances sorrow and comfort. It reflects on the pain of parting while offering reassurance through love, memory, and faith. The reflective tone and steady rhythm guide readers through the emotions of loss, turning death into a gentle transition rather than an end, leaving a lasting sense of peace and hope.

When tomorrow starts without me

And I’m not here to see

If the sun should rise and find your eyes

All filled with tears for me

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O Captain! My Captain!

by Walt Whitman

Saddened by the results of the American civil war, Walt Whitman wrote the elegy, ‘O Captain! My Captain!’ in memory of deceased American President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. The civil war occurred during his lifetime with Whitman a staunch supporter of unionists.

This is an elegy for Abraham Lincoln, celebrating his life and mourning his death. The poem is written in a mournful tone and uses vivid imagery to convey the sorrow felt by the speaker and the nation as a whole. Whitman's elegy also highlights Lincoln's leadership qualities and his role in guiding the nation through the Civil War.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;

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Loving Someone You Can't Have

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After

by Philip Bourke Marston

‘After’ by Marston captures the eternal ache of loss, where brief joys transition to lasting sorrow, reflecting on grief’s permanence.

Philip Bourke Marston’s poem ‘After’ is an elegy dedicated to a loved one. The speaker of this piece grieves the death of his beloved. He also misses the time they had together. This elegy has a regular rhyme and meter.

A LITTLE time for laughter,

— A little time to sing,

— A little time to kiss and cling,

And no more kissing after.

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Long Distance II

by Tony Harrison

‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison is an elegiac poem that describes a father’s way of grieving the death of his wife and his child’s reaction to his futile actions.

‘Long Distance II’ is essentially an elegy written using a lighthearted tone. The irony lies in the fact that death creates a gap so deep in a person’s heart that no matter how hard one tries to fill it, the hollow remains just the same.

Though my mother was already two years dead

Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,

put hot water bottles her side of the bed

and still went to renew her transport pass.

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Lycidas

by John Milton

In ‘Lycidas,’ Milton employs the pastoral elegy to memorialize the death of his friend, Edward King. As he transforms King’s life into an allegory, Milton interrogates Christian ideology and the form of epic poetry.

This poem is famously a pastoral elegy. Milton uses the form to eulogize Edward King as a mythical poet-shepherd whose passing effects devastation on the surrounding land and sea.

Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere,

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude,

And with forc'd fingers rude

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Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden

‘Funeral Blues,’ also known as ‘Stop all the Clocks,’ is arguably Auden’s most famous poem. It was first published in Poems of To-Day in 1938.

Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’ is an elegiac piece in which the speaker talks about the death of his partner. He asks everyone to attend his beloved’s funeral and pay their tribute to the person.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

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Eden Rock

by Charles Causley

‘Eden Rock’ evokes nostalgia, depicting a timeless picnic with his parents, blending memory with longing for familial unity.

This is an elegiac piece about the parents of the speaker. They are no longer with him and due to this, he imagines one picnic where they are together. Ironically, he is unable to join them even in his imagination.

They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:

My father, twenty-five, in the same suit

Of Genuine Irish Tweed, his terrier Jack

Still two years old and trembling at his feet.

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Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

‘Adonais’ is a lament for the untimely death of the mystical figure Adonais, symbolizing the young and talented John Keats.

This poem is a clear example of an elegy because it was written to mourn the death of John Keats. Shelley uses the poem to express sadness, admiration, and reflection after losing someone deeply respected. The tone moves from grief to comfort, and by the end, he finds peace in the thought that Keats’s spirit lives on. Everything in the poem, from the language to the subject, follows the traditional path of a poetic farewell.

I weep for Adonais—he is dead!

Oh, weep for Adonais! though our tears

Thaw not the frost which binds so dear a head!

And thou, sad Hour, selected from all years

#10

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In Memory of the Utah Stars

by William Matthews

‘In Memory of the Utah Stars’ captures the manner in which memories can provide us with both pleasure and pain.

The poem laments the loss of the team and mourns their loss like a person. However, it is also a celebration of the team's achievements and an acknowledgement of the void they leave behind.

Each of them must have terrified

his parents by being so big, obsessive

and exact so young, already gone

and leaving, like a big tipper,

#11

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Frederick Douglass

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Written in the aftermath of Frederick Douglass’ death, this poem that bears his name shows the author’s clear admiration for the man as he describes the huge influence he had on his people. It ends on a hopeful note as the author believes that Douglass’ influence will continue to be felt among his people.

This poem is a very good elegy, mourning the death of someone who has had a great impact on the poet. Written shortly after the death of Frederick Douglass, the emotion in the words is very evident. The poet mourns his passing, discusses the way others will mourn him and then gives details about his past and the impact he will continue to have on other people in the future.

A hush is over all the teeming lists,

And there is pause, a breath-space in the strife;

A spirit brave has passed beyond the mists

And vapors that obscure the sun of life.

#12

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Myth

by Natasha Trethewey

Explore the deep feelings of grief depicted in ‘Myth,’ as the speaker moves between vivid dreams and the stark reality of loss, experiencing intense sorrow.

Trethewey writes an elegy—a poem that mourns someone who has died. Elegies like this one often talk about grief and how losing someone changes us. 'Myth' explores how memories and dreams can keep the person we've lost alive in our hearts.

I was asleep while you were dying.

It’s as if you slipped through some rift,

a hollow I make between my slumber and my waking,

#13

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Sonnet 107

by William Shakespeare

‘Sonnet 107’ by William Shakespeare addresses how the speaker and the Fair Youth are going to be memorialized and outsmart death through the “poor rhyme” of poetry.

‘Sonnet 107’ can be considered an elegy due to its meditations on mortality and the defiance of death through art. Lines like “And thou in this shalt find thy monument” evoke the idea of poetry serving as a lasting tribute to the speaker’s beloved, much like an elegiac poem memorializes the deceased. Although the poem does not dwell on sorrow or loss, it uses death as a backdrop to highlight the triumph of art and memory, making it a strong example of elegiac poetry, with a focus on commemoration and preservation.

Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul

Of the wide world dreaming on things to come,

Can yet the lease of my true love control,

Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom.

#14

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‘Blessed by the indifference…’

by Christopher Reid

In ‘Blessed by the indifference…’, facing the loss of his wife, the speaker tries to distract himself from the looming presence of death.

Christopher Reid published the book 'A Scattering' in 2009 after the death of his wife, Lucinda, from cancer in 2005. While this poem in particular does not explicitly feature Lucinda, it pays respect to her as Reid acknowledges his absent-mindedness in her final year. In particular, it shows Reid's difficulty in coming to terms with his wife's illness and her impending death. The bout of hopelessness and existentialism it casts him into is a testament of the love he holds for Lucinda and her importance to him. In 2010, the book won the Costa award, which has only been given to four books of poetry, three of which being elegies.

'Yours more or less for the asking.

Of course I accept your paltry currency, your small change

of days and hours.'

#15

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Memorial

by Colm Keegan

Colm Keegan confronts the violent deaths of young men in Ireland in ‘Memorial’, rewinding the clock to a time they were happy and free.

Drawing inspiration from a real murder in Dublin, Keegan creates an elegy which remembers not only the individual boy, but all the young men who have been victims of violence. Throughout the poem, the young boy's family can be seen mourning. However, it is perhaps the speaker who mourns most evidently, as they express a willingness to do anything to change the past. Unable to accept the death of the young man, the speaker reverses time itself, effectively resurrecting him.

a house filled with your friends:

young good-looking boys and girls

music and a party starting

as soon as you step in.

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15+ Mournful Elegy Poems

(15 to start, 125+ to explore)

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15+ Mournful Elegy Poems

(15 to start, 125+ to explore)

by Elizabeth Bishop

by David Romano

by Walt Whitman

by Philip Bourke Marston

by Tony Harrison

by John Milton

by W.H. Auden

by Charles Causley

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

by William Matthews

by Paul Laurence Dunbar

by Natasha Trethewey

by William Shakespeare

by Christopher Reid

by Colm Keegan

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