Laments

book of the Hebrew Bible

An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy, "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".

thumb|George W. Bush delivers the eulogy at [[Ronald Reagan's state funeral, June 2004.]]

thumb|right|Jan Kochanowski with dead daughter in painting inspired by the poet's Laments

A marsiya (; ) is an elegiac poem written to commemorate the martyrdom and valour of Hussain ibn Ali, his family, and his companions at the tragedy of Karbala. Marsiyas are essentially religious lamentations.

musical composition by Krzysztof Penderecki (1960)

1580 book of elegies by Jan Kochanowski

poem

In Arabic Music, the mawwāl (; plural: mawāwīl, ) is a traditional and popular Arabic genre of vocal music that is very slow in beat and sentimental in nature, and is characterised by prolonging vowel syllables, emotional vocals, and is usually presented before the actual song begins. The singer performing a mawwal would usually lament and long for something, such as a past lover, a departed family member or a place, in a wailing manner.

funerary inscription in Ancient Rome

A dirge () is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as may be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegies. Dirges are often slow and bear the character of funeral marches. Poetic dirges may be dedicated to a specific individual or otherwise thematically refer to death.

Kinnot (; also kinnos, kinoth, qinot, qinoth; , qinah or kinnah) are Hebrew dirges (sad poems) or elegies. The term is used to refer both to dirges in the Hebrew Bible and to latterly-composed poems that Jews traditionally recite on Tisha B'Av.