Member-Sponsored Elegy for the End of the Year Contest

Details

From the earliest poems, written or spoken, poets have created verse in response to the loss of a friend, public figure, relationship, or even an idea.

However, the elegy is not simply a venting of grief. What separates the elegy from the eulogy or the epitaph or even a rant poem, is that the elegy responds to an event or feeling in multiple stages: the lament; praise or admiration; and consolation.

Mary Jo Bang defines it this way:

What is elegy but the attempt

To rebreathe life

Into what the gone one once was

Before he grew to enormity.

—where breathing life holds as much weight as marking loss.

Your goal in this contest is to create an elegy which embodies these three elements: Lament, Admiration, and Consolation. You can focus on the personal, the loss of someone famous, or a general feeling of loss. Your elegy can emulate the approach of a famous elegy (see below for examples) or go in a new direction that suits your personal style and subject matter.

Elegy Examples:

Here are a few examples of well-known elegies with varied themes, time periods and styles. One or more of these may provide you with the inspiration you need in writing your elegy:

1. “Amores” by Ovid is an example of a classical elegy with a general subject matter. These poems consisted of couplets, with the first line in Dactylic Hexameter, the second in Dactylic Pentameter.
2. “Lycidas” by Milton is a pastoral elegy, which combines the deeply personal with a general sense of loss of an idyllic past.
3. “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray is an example of an elegy with a strict rhyme scheme.
4. “O Captain, My Captain!” by Walt Whitman is an elegy which includes a mix of traditional and slant rhyme.
5. “Haw Lantern” by Seamus Heaney is an example of a more free verse style elegy.

Winning entries

Winners have been announced! Log in to see them.

Prizes

Rules

• Entries must be received before midnight of January 31st (UTC time) and the winners will be announced mid-February.

• Only one entry per author. Multiple entries will all be disqualified.

• Work must have Public visibility on Scribophile until a winner is announced.

Submission guidelines

• To enter the contest, post your work on Scribophile and check the box that says "Enter this work into the Member-Sponsored Elegy for the End of the Year Contest." Your work will automatically be considered. The checkbox will be visible until the contest deadline, which is in UTC time.

• Entry is free, but you'll need karma points to post your work. You can earn karma points by writing critiques of work by other members.

• If you have placed in a contest in the past with a particular piece, you may not resubmit that piece in other contests.