Poets and Poems: Mischa Willett and “The Elegy Beta”

Poet Mischa Willett is exploring the elegy. And more than exploring it, he’s modernizing it.

You reach a certain age, and you begin to understand why the elegy is an enduring poetic form. Its history stretches as far back as the Greeks and Romans. Typically associated with death and funerals, an elegy can be almost any poem that’s a serious reflection. Traditional elegies (think Thomas Gray’s “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”) make full use of rhyming couplets. Contemporary elegies generally drop the rhyme, but they retain the concept of seriousness and solemnity.

The title poem in Willet’s new collection, The Elegy Beta, fits that contemporary understanding. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.