elegiac
Plaintive in tone
Elegiac describes something expressing sorrow or mourning, particularly for the dead or for things lost.
The word derives from elegy, a poem of lamentation.
Beyond formal mourning, elegiac captures a broader mood of wistful sadness about passing time or vanished ways of life: an elegiac tone pervades his final novels, the elegiac beauty of autumn.
Music, photography, and prose can all be elegiac when they evoke gentle melancholy rather than sharp grief.
Mournful expression of grief
- threnodyMemorial song of grief
- dirgeMournful commemorative music
- requiemMass for the deceased
- eulogyTribute for the dead
grief · bereavement · lamentation · funeral · memorial · obituary · remembrance · condolence
Showing or feeling grief
- sorrowfulFilled with grief
- plaintiveSounding sad, sorrowful
- dolefulExpressing deep sorrow
- wistfulSadly longing for something
pensive · somber · lugubrious · woeful · bittersweet · poignant · sad · tender
Inclined to deep thought
- meditativeInclined toward deep reflection
- pensiveQuietly, sadly thoughtful
- ruminativeProne to prolonged reflection
- broodingAnxiously dwelling on something
thoughtful · introspective · philosophical · musing · quiet · measured · slow · deliberate
Intense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- wistfulSadly longing for something
- bittersweetWistful yet warm
memory · bygone · halcyon · retrospective · hiraeth · past · yesteryear · fleeting
lament
Mournful expression of grief
eulogy · grief · bereavement · lamentation · funeral · memorial · obituary · remembrance · condolence · keening
mournful
Showing or feeling grief
wistful · pensive · somber · lugubrious · woeful · bittersweet · poignant · sad · tender · heartrending
contemplative
Inclined to deep thought
- meditativeInclined toward deep reflection
- pensiveQuietly, sadly thoughtful
- ruminativeProne to prolonged reflection
brooding · thoughtful · introspective · philosophical · musing · quiet · measured · slow · deliberate · solemn
yearning
Intense prolonged craving
- longingIntense, persistent desire
- reminiscenceRecalling past experiences
- wistfulSadly longing for something
bittersweet · memory · bygone · halcyon · retrospective · hiraeth · past · yesteryear · fleeting · faded
couplet
Two successive verse lines
- pentameterFive-foot poetic line
- hexameterSix-foot poetic line
- meterDevice that measures usage
verse · stanza · ode · sonnet · lyric · dactylic · classical · Ovid · Rilke · Tennyson
- literary adjectivespoetic, lyrical, prosaic, narrative, epistolary
- literary stylespastoral, lyrical prose, satirical, poetic prose, lyrical
- Death Poetrydirge, requiem, epitaph, eulogy, lament
- dramatic tonesintense, tense, suspenseful, ominous, foreboding
- sadnesssad, unhappy, grief, sorrowful, heartbroken
- sombergloomy, bleak, dreary, dismal, melancholy
elegiacjoyful
Feeling great happiness
jubilant · cheerful · celebratory · merry · exuberant
elegiacforward-looking
Oriented toward the future
hopeful · anticipatory · optimistic · aspirational · futuristic