elegy

Ancient Greek poetic verse genre, originally combining a hexameter (line of poetry with six metrical feet) with a shorter line in a couplet. It was used by the Greeks for epigrams, short narratives, and discursive poems, and adopted by the Roman poets (such as Ovid and Propertius), particularly for erotic verse.

In contemporary usage, the term refers to a nostalgic poem or a lament, often a funeral poem. English poet Thomas Gray's ‘Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard’ (1751) is one of the best-known elegies in English. An elegy is likely to be a personal and private expression of grief.