elegiac couplet

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• Elegiac couplet — Elegiac couplets are a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than those of epic poetry. The ancient Romans frequently used elegiac couplets in love poetry, as in Ovid s Amores . As with heroic… …   Wikipedia

• elegiac couplet — noun a pair of lines consisting of a dactylic hexameter and a pentameter, used especially in Greek and Latin verse …   English new terms dictionary

• Elegiac — refers either to those compositions that are like elegies or to a specific poetic meter used in Classical elegies. The Classical elegiac meter has two lines, making it a couplet: a line of dactylic hexameter, followed by a line of dactylic… …   Wikipedia

• Elegiac comedy — was a genre of medieval Latin literature or drama popular in the twelfth century. About twenty such works survive, all of them produced in west central France, roughly the Loire Valley. Though commonly identified in manuscripts as comoedia ,… …   Wikipedia

• elegiac — [el΄ə jī′ə kəlel ē′jē ak΄, i lē′jē ak΄; el΄ə jī′ak΄, el΄ə jī′ək] adj. [LL elegiacus < Gr elegeiakos < elegeia: see ELEGY] 1. Gr. & Latin Prosody of or composed in dactylic hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter)… …   English World dictionary

• Couplet — For other uses, see Couplet (disambiguation). A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark …   Wikipedia

• elegiac — adj. & n. adj. 1 (of a metre) used for elegies. 2 mournful. n. (in pl.) verses in an elegiac metre. Phrases and idioms: elegiac couplet a pair of lines consisting of a dactylic hexameter and a pentameter, esp. in Greek and Latin verse.… …   Useful english dictionary

• elegiac —   n. Prosody, verse line of five dactyls with marked caesura; a. pertaining to or written in such verse line; mournful.    ♦ elegiac couplet, dactylic hexameter followed by dactylic pentameter.    ♦ elegiacs, n. verses written in elegaic metre or …   Dictionary of difficult words

• Elegiac — E*le gi*ac (?; 277), a. [L. elegiacus, Gr. ?: cf. F. [ e]l[ e]giaque. See {Elegy}.] 1. Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as, an elegiac lay; elegiac strains. [1913 Webster] Elegiac griefs,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• elegiac — 1. adjective /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪˌæk,ˌɛləˈdʒaɪək/ a) Of, or relating to an elegy. b) Expressing sorrow or mourning. 2. noun /ˌɛləˈdʒaɪˌæk,ˌɛləˈdʒaɪək/ A poem composed in the couplet style of classical elegies: a line of …   Wiktionary