Home › Glossary › Letter E

Elegiac sonnet

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A sonnet form expressing grief, mourning, or elegiac reflection, often commemorating the dead with formal solemnity.

Detailed Definition
Elegiac sonnet combines the formal constraints of the sonnet (fourteen lines, specific rhyme scheme) with the thematic concerns of elegy—mourning, reflection, and consolation; it often follows a Petrarchan or Shakespearean structure but replaces romantic or philosophical meditation with lament, using volta to shift from grief to tentative acceptance, thereby merging personal sorrow with disciplined lyrical architecture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73: “That time of year thou mayst in me behold...” blending autumnal decay with love; Milton’s “Lycidas” as pastoral elegy in sonnet-like stanzas; Wordsworth’s sonnets on loss, such as “Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind”; modern examples like W.H. Auden’s elegiac sonnets for Yeats
Additional Notes
Elegiac sonnets often follow Petrarchan structure: an octave of lament and a sestet of consolation; the volta typically marks the shift from sorrow to reflection or acceptance.
Also Known As
Mourning sonnet Lament sonnet Threnodic sonnet Elegy in fourteen lines
Skip to main content