ELEGY

MOURNscape Elegies Digital Book

In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead. However, "for all of its pervasiveness... the ‘elegy’ remains remarkably ill-defined: sometimes used as a catch all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual monumentalizing, and sometimes strictly as a sign of a lament for the dead". Elegy is a form of poetry natural to the reflective mind. It may treat of any subject, but it must treat of no subject for itself; but always and exclusively with reference to the poet. As we will feel regret for the past or desire for the future, so sorrow and love become the principal themes of the elegy. Elegy presents every thing as lost and gone or absent from future.

Students write elegies for those who have lost their lives to Covid-19 and violence, for those who lost loved ones, and for all of us who are experiencing collective dismemberment. Students express emotion beyond empathy, for the angst of anticipated, prolonged mourning elucidating the heart’s path in processing the various atrocities of pandemic and civil unrest. Students craft a protest manifesto to reference otherness, inequity, culture, resistance, loss as a tribute to the empty spaces left behind, the fading memories, the writhing disappointments, the fantasies entertained and the suppressed histories. Students articulate their opinions, speaking in all their contradictory voices, challenging irreconcilable hierarchies, embracing paradox, while offering a narrative of continued resilience, courage and hope. They propose how we will remember this time, how it has changed us, and how we will transform ourselves and our environment knowing what we now know.