Elegies & Laments: Poetic tributes to the dead

In these more modern time perhaps our first thoughts of an Elegy or a Lament is for someone's passing. Wreathed in grief and death we think of a headstone on a silent grave and the memories that shelter within our hearts, slowly receding from one generation to the next, as an often lonely voice extols the virtues and traits of the one who has passed.

But these two very early forms of poetry, dating back to at least Ovid and probably further, are also surprising in their lyrical touch. These ...