Grave and weep" came to her in a sudden flash of compassion for the daughter ofĪ Holocaust victim. To our knowledge, she had never written a poem before "Do not stand at my Perhaps the most mysterious poet on this page is Mary Elizabeth Frye, aīaltimore housewife who lacked a formal education, having been orphaned at age Lincoln: "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" Yeats" (#1) Walt Whitman's wonderful elegies for Abraham (#4) Percy Bysshe Shelley "Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats" (#3)Īlfred Tennyson "In Memoriam A.H.H." (#2) W.H. Shakespeare" and "Methought I Saw" (#5) William Dunbar "Lament for the Makaris" Not Go Gently Into That Good Night" (#6) John Milton "Lycidias," "On John Crowe Ransom "Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter" (#8) Conrad Aiken "Bread and Music" (#7) Dylan Thomas "Do
My personal top ten writers of elegies and laments are: (#10) Ben Jonson "On My First Son" and "On My First Daughter" (#9)
Shakespeare, Wallace Stevens, Sir Thomas Wyatt and William Butler Yeats. Vincent Millay, Sylvia Plath, Christina Rossetti, William Housman, Langston Hughes, Robert Lowell, Edna St. Robert Frost, John Keats, Robert Hayden, Gerard Manley Hopkins, A. T wo translations of epigrams by the ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos and masterpieces of the genre by William Blake, Louise Bogan, John Clare, Hart Crane, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Other poems of special interest are the lovely and touching "Requiescat" by Oscar Wilde (immediately below)
Please look especially for two poems, "Tom O'Bedlam"Īnd "Wulf and Eadwacer," both by one of my favorite poets, Anonymous. Some of these poems are justifiably famous others are probably unknown to most readers. Sad, dark and mournful poems of all time. Which poets wrote the best elegies, dirges, requiems, laments and poems of mourning in the English language? In one man's opinion, for whatever it's worth, the poems on this page are among the best The Best Elegies, Dirges, Requiems, Laments and Poems of Mourning The Best Elegies, Dirges, Requiems, Laments and Poems of Mourning The HyperTexts