The Elegy: Change In Poetry
When thinking of poetry, one might recall from memory flowing, descriptive verse, brimming with insight and perspective, or outlining the beauty of nature, among myriads of alternative subjects upon which a poem might be based. The names of Shakespeare, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Browning, and many others can by merely casual mention elicit mental images of several of these subjects, and forms: Shakespeare’s sonnets, Browning’s famous line, “How do I love thee,” or Frost’s photographic verse entailing the beauty of New England. Master poets and masterpieces of the poetic form tend to dominate the consciousness of one’s mind when broaching poetry in thought. Less prevalent in thought are subcategories of poetic genre, whether one considers the Japanese form haiku, Petrarch or Shakespeare’s versions of the sonnet, or the Greco-Roman epic. To venture much farther from the mainstream of the poetic form would be to deviate to areas and forms relatively unknown to social awareness.
In this unknown area can be found countless culturally significant works of poetry that merit discovery. Among the most important works for any culture would be one that embodies the ethos of that culture. To gain insight into such a work is to learn about the culture from which the work originates. The epic poem is particularly important in learning about a culture’s ethos because epics exist in the literate history of so many cultures. In differentiating among the types of epic poem, the elegiac form allows interesting inferences to be made about the poet’s culture, as with the Nordic culture of Beowulf and the culture of Kievan Rus The Lay of Igor’s Campaign. Elegies lament the passing away of a person, but in both Beowulf and Igor, the elegy takes on an allegorical form, not necessarily mourning the passing of a particular person so much as the passing of an age or a way of life. The elegiac form of poetry used in Beowulf and Igor captures the essence of Nordic and Russian culture at a historic moment of upheaval and change.
Beowulf concludes with the heroic death of King Beowulf following his defeat of a dragon. By this time, Beowulf is quite advanced in years, certainly not far from a death by natural causes. Rather than subjecting himself to such a mundane fate, Beowulf decides to battle the dragon, with a premonition that he will likely die as a result of the encounter. Primarily through his own strength, Beowulf defeats the dragon. This battle parallels Beowulf’s glorious fifty year reign over his kingdom in that it is by Beowulf’s personal strength that the kingdom has been able to survive during his reign: “And this people can expect fighting, once / The Franks, and the Frisians, have heard that our king / Lies dead” (40, 2910-12). With Beowulf’s protection gone, the Geats realize that they will be subject to interminable warfare for years to come, radically altering the peaceful existence they had enjoyed during Beowulf’s lifetime. As a result, Beowulf’s death represents much more than the passing of a king. It embodies the passing of an age for the Geats.
Beowulf includes several digressions from the main storyline, among which is an interesting tale known as the “Lay of the Last Survivor,” which laments the passing of a powerful race, prophetically similar to the imminent demise of Beowulf’s kingdom:
“…the last survivor / Of a noble race, ancient riches / Left in the darkness as the
end of a dynasty / Came. Death had taken them, one / By one and the warrior
who watched over all / That remained mourned their fate…” (32, 2233-38).
Just as the last survivor had been witness to the fall of his mighty race, so too would the Geats one by one witness the fall of their mighty kingdom in Beowulf’s absence. The language the anonymous poet uses creates a sense of doom and regret for the noble race that will stay with the reader as he or she later learns of the Geats’ degenerative kingdom. It is this sense of loss and impending death that makes Beowulf an elegiac poem.
Similarly to Beowulf, The Lay of Igor’s Campaign marks the ending of a way of life for a culture. As the Geats had to attempt survival without Beowulf’s protection, the Russians fruitlessly attempt to withstand the invading forces of the Kumans, eventually being conquered by the Golden Hoard of Mongolia. Igor, a prince of one of the regions of Kievan Rus, raises his army against the Kumans and engages in a battle to end the Kumans ceaseless raids on Russian frontier towns. After several ill omens Igor leads his army to battle, emerging victorious after one day, but suffers defeat after two. Following the conquest, Russia becomes an occupied land, with Igor standing as a lament of the passing age of Russian self-rule. The poet’s words serve to represent the collective feeling of the Russian people, saying: “And now, brethren, unhappy times have arrived. / The prairie overwhelmed the Russian forces. / Grief…/ put an end to the times of good fortune” (VIII, 1-7). The language the poet uses reflects the grievous nature of the Russian peoples’ fate, as the elegy announces the end of Kievan Rus.
In understanding the nature of both the Russian and Nordic cultures, perhaps as significant as the poets’ use of language and tone in creating a mournful mood are the poets’ conclusions to the two stories. What might be inferred, for example, from Beowulf’s conclusion, as the king simultaneously protects and weakens his kingdom? Beowulf saves his kingdom from the ravages of the dragon, but by dying, he weakens the kingdom by no longer serving as its deterrent to warfare. While Beowulf ends with a flurry of action, Igor fades quietly, as Igor escapes captivity and returns to his people. Igor can claim no great, noble deed at the poem’s end, as could Beowulf. Perhaps Igor’s unremarkable ending hints at a Russian acceptance of defeat. Although the Geats most certainly faced defeat without Beowulf, in Wiglaf they at least had a leader to assume command; the Russians maintained a leader, as Igor does not die, but as the Mongols have already overrun the land, no hope of victory can remain. The Russian people are overjoyed at Igor’s return home, but remain defeated by the Kumans.
What one can learn of a culture through its literature is substantial. Without the insight into Nordic life provided by Beowulf, one could not see the prevalent attitudes of pessimism and “inevitable doom represented by the concept wyrd” (sparknotes.com) which permeates throughout Beowulf. Igor allows a glimpse of a valiant struggle to defend the homeland from foreign invasion, amid the chaos of deteriorating support from within the Russian lands resulting from constant fighting among the several princes for control. What the poets of these two elegies have done is preserve a timeless frame of history, from which a reader today is able to look back at a nation on the precipice of profound change. How the culture of Russia changed following the conquest by the Golden Hoard might be difficult to ascertain without a glimpse into the era provided by Igor. Similarly, earlier Nordic nations would likely have been much like the kingdom portrayed by fictional King Beowulf, and such a view would help modern scholars recognize key moments of cultural change in the history of Northern Europe. Through the employment of elegiac poetry, the composers of these two works afford today’s readers to see visions of bleakness and imminent cultural shock with the fall of longstanding rule and tradition. While Beowulf and The Lay of Igor’s Campaign may not excite a reader’s senses with the beautiful descriptions and “poetic” verse generally associated with poetry, these poems resoundingly strike a different chord. They are not beautiful because they do not portray times of wonder and bliss; they represent times of uncertainty and change. As such, they darkly and hopelessly lament the loss of a former way of life, reluctantly accepting the actuality of the uncertain future.