The Elegy
1. Try to write a poem about something that has ended for you.The poem could be about a person you love who has died, or it could be about the end of a relationship or the end of a day. Of course, it could be the death of a person as an elegy traditionally is. In the poem show how you feel by comparing this "ending" to other "endings."
2. Try to place a sensory image at the heart of the poem; ground your feelings in real places and objects. Find an event, a physical locale and concrete objects to place in your poem.
3. Try not to rehearse one's feelings of remorse or longing for the thing that is lost. Also, do not be tempted to make a laudry list of remembered events with this thing/person.
This assignment is worth 1 point.
Examples:
1. Behaving Like a Jew—Gerald Stern
2. De Profundis—Georg Trakl (tr. by Michael Hamburger) [German version]
3. And That Night Clifford Died—Philip Levine