ELEGY

An elegy, in simple terms, is a lyric poem setting forth a poet's meditations on death or an expression of grief.  For example, a poet today might write an elegy expressing grief over the sudden and unexpected death of Calvin Coolidge at age 60  in 1933, or the murder of Bobby Kennedy at age 43 in 1968.  

Many years ago the elegy was distinguishable by its very complicated format (dactylic hexameter, for heaven's sake!), but that is no longer required.

The most famous elegy in the English language today is Thomas Gray's (1716-1771) Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.  This lengthy poem is available in most anthologies of famous poetry, and so it is not reproduced here.  The format is iambic pentameter with rhyme scheme a-b-a-b.

Here is one stanza from Gray's Elegy:

   The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
   The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
   The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
   And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

You might also take a look at An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog by Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774), which is much shorter. Goldsmith uses 8 stanzas of alternating iambic tetrameter (4 beats) with trimeter (3 beats), which is sometimes referred to as "rocking horse rhythm." Again, the rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b.

Here's one stanza from Goldsmith:

   The dog and man at first were friends;
        But when a pique began,
   The dog, to gain some private ends,
        Went mad and bit the man.
 

In the Merriam Webster's Reader's Handbook of Literary Terms, we are told that the elegy may also be used to lament or express sorrow over something that is past.

And finally, I think the elegaic poem today is an expression of grief or a lamentation over loss. The poem may be of any length, in any form, with or without specific meter, and with or without specific rhyme. In other words, subject matter now defines the elegy.