Pastoral elegy condition of death, not just the death of a single individual. John Milton’s "Lycidas," considered the most famous pastoral elegy, mourns the death of the poet’s good friend Edward King. In the 17th century, John Donne, a contemporary of Milton’s, explored the genre further and addressed matters of human love, which to his metaphysically inclined mind often resembled death. In the English language some of the greatest pastoral elegies are "Adonaïs" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which mourns the death of poet John Keats, and "Thyrsis" by Matthew Arnold, which mourns the poet Arthur Hugh Clough. In 17th century England, Andrew
Marienbad Elegy Marienbad Elegy The "Marienbad Elegy" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It is named after the spa town of Marienbad (now Mariánské Lázně) where Goethe, 73 years old, spent the summer of 1821. There he fell in love with the 17-year-old Ulrike von Levetzow. Goethe returned to Marienbad in the summer of of 1823 to celebrate his birthday. On that occasion, he asked Ulrike, via his friend, Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, to marry him. She declined. This poem, considered one of Goethe's finest and most personal, reflects the devastating sadness the poet felt when his proposal