elegiac couplets

Meaning

1. 1nounusually pluralliterary

   Pairs of lines in Greek and Roman poetry, a long line of six beats followed by a shorter one, often used for sad or personal themes.

   Grammar: Usually plural, as the form repeats: the poem is written in elegiac couplets.

   Patterns

   • written in elegiac couplets

   Ovid wrote much of his love poetry in elegiac couplets.

   Students were asked to translate the poem and keep its elegiac couplets.

   The poet used elegiac couplets to mourn his brother.

Word forms

Common combinations

write in elegiac couplets

She chose to write in elegiac couplets.

Latin elegiac couplets

The class studied Latin elegiac couplets.

a poem in elegiac couplets

He read a poem in elegiac couplets aloud.

translate elegiac couplets

It is hard to translate elegiac couplets into English.

Synonyms and how they differ

distich

It means any two-line unit of verse, while elegiac couplets are a specific long-short pattern.

couplet

It is the general word for two rhyming or matched lines, without the ancient long-short meter.

elegy

It is a whole poem of mourning, whereas elegiac couplets describe the form of its lines.

Word family

elegy noun

a poem of sorrow or lament

elegiac adjective

sad and thoughtful, or relating to an elegy

couplet noun

two lines of verse that go together

elegist noun

a writer of elegies

Commonly confused: elegiac couplets or heroic couplets?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “elegiac couplets”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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