The Penguin Book of Elegy bookcover

The Penguin Book of Elegy

Poems of Memory, Mourning and Consolation
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Description

The comprehensive guide to a deeply human tradition of memory, mourning, and consolation through poetry

A Penguin Classic


Elegy is among the world's oldest forms of literature. Born in Ancient Greece, practiced by the Romans, revitalized by the poets of the Renaissance, and continuing down to the present day, it speaks eloquently and affectingly of the experience of loss and the yearning for consolation. It gives shape and meaning to memories too painful to contemplate, and answers our desire to fix in words what would otherwise slip our grasp. In The Penguin Book of Elegy, Andrew Motion and Stephen Regan trace the history of this tradition, from its Classical roots in the work of Theocritus, Virgil, and Ovid down to modern compositions exploring personal tragedy and collective grief by such celebrated voices of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries as Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, Terrance Hayes and Alice Oswald. The only comprehensive anthology of its kind in the English language, The Penguin Book of Elegy is a profound and moving compendium of the fundamentally human urges to remember and honor the dead, and to give comfort to those who survive them.

Product Details

PublisherPenguin Classics
Publish DateApril 01, 2025
Pages688
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9780241269626
Dimensions7.7 X 5.0 X 1.2 inches | 1.0 pounds
BISAC Categories: Poetry, Poetry,

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