The Penguin Book of Elegy: Poems of Memory, Mourning and Consolation

by Andrew Motion (Introduction), Stephen Regan (introduction)

Elegy is among the world's oldest forms of literature: a continuous poetic tradition which stretches back beyond the time of Virgil and Horace to Ancient Greece, speaking eloquently and movingly of the experience of loss and the yearning for consolation. In perhaps the purest instance of art's fundamental 'impulse to preserve' (Philip Larkin), it gives shape and meaning to memories too painful to contemplate for long, and answers our desire to fix in words what would otherwise slip our grasp.

In The Penguin Book of Elegy, Andrew Motion and Stephen Regan trace the history of this tradition, selecting the best and most significant poems and poets from the Classical roots of elegy, and from its Renaissance revival down to the present day. They show how this remarkably resilient and versatile form has continued to adapt itself even as society and religious belief have shifted around it, with striking achievements in the work of twentieth- and twenty-first-century poets as different as Czeslaw Milosz and Marianne Moore, Denise Riley and Gwendolyn Brooks.

The result is the only comprehensive anthology of its kind now available in the English language. The Penguin Book of Elegy is itself a work of preservation - and a profound and moving catalogue of the fundamentally human urges to remember and honour the dead, and give comfort to those who survive them.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Reference

688 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Sir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.

Motion was appointed Poet Laureate on 1 May 1999, following the death of Ted Hughes, the previous incumbent. The Nobel Prize-winning Northern Irish poet and translator Seamus Heaney had ruled himself out for the post. Breaking with the tradition of the laureate retaining the post for life, Motion stipulated that he would stay for only ten years. The yearly stipend of £200 was increased to £5,000 and he received the customary butt of sack.

He wanted to write "poems about things in the news, and commissions from people or organisations involved with ordinary life," rather than be seen a 'courtier'. So, he wrote "for the TUC about liberty, about homelessness for the Salvation Army, about bullying for ChildLine, about the foot and mouth outbreak for the Today programme, about the Paddington rail disaster, the 11 September attacks and Harry Patch for the BBC, and more recently about shell shock for the charity Combat Stress, and climate change for the song cycle I've finished for Cambridge University with Peter Maxwell Davies." In 2003, Motion wrote Regime change, a poem in protest at Invasion of Iraq from the point of view of Death walking the streets during the conflict, and in 2005, Spring Wedding in honour of the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. Commissioned to write in the honour of 109 year old Harry Patch, the last surviving 'Tommy' to have fought in World War I, Motion composed a five part poem, read and received by Patch at the Bishop's Palace in Wells in 2008. As laureate, he also founded the Poetry Archive an on-line library of historic and contemporary recordings of poets reciting their own work.

Motion remarked that he found some of the duties attendant to the post of poet laureate difficult and onerous and that the appointment had been "very, very damaging to [his] work". The appointment of Motion met with criticism from some quarters. As he prepared to stand down from the job, Motion published an article in The Guardian which concluded, "To have had 10 years working as laureate has been remarkable. Sometimes it's been remarkably difficult, the laureate has to take a lot of flak, one way or another. More often it has been remarkably fulfilling. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad I'm giving it up – especially since I mean to continue working for poetry." Motion spent his last day as Poet Laureate holding a creative writing class at his alma mater, Radley College, before giving a poetry reading and thanking Peter Way, the man who taught him English at Radley, for making him who he was. Carol Ann Duffy succeeded him as Poet Laureate on 1 May 2009.

Andrew Motion nació en 1952. Estudió en el University College de Oxford y empezó su carrera enseñando inglés en la Universidad de Hull. También ha sido director de Poetry Review, director editorial de Chatto & Windus, y Poeta Laureado; asimismo, fue cofundador del Poetry Archive, y en 2009 se le concedió el título de Sir por su obra literaria. En la actualidad es profesor de escritura creativa en el Royal Holloway, de la Universidad de Londres. Es miembro de la Royal Society of Literature y vive en Londres. Con un elenco de nobles marineros y crueles piratas, y llena de historias de amor y de valentía, Regreso a la isla del tesoro es una trepidante continuación de La isla del tesoro, escrita con extraordinaria autenticidad y fuerza imaginativa por uno de los grandes escritores ingleses actuales.

Reviews

[Kayley Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would’ve enjoyed this collection more if the poems were organized chronologically rather than alphabetically by author name. The modern poems disrupted my rhythm and broke my concentration. They felt out of place. I think it would’ve been a more interesting and insightful study of the subject matter if the poems showed how mourning and loss were expressed flowing through the ages.

[Barbara Sibbald]

By Andrew Motion AND Stephen Regan.
Incredible for both breadth and depth, from ancient Greeks to Rap, grieving in its myriad forms and subjects (person, maiden name, land, lamb etc).

The Guardian provides an apt review https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...

Many months of deep and rewarding reading await. Familiar and unfamiliar. All are to be savoured.

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning collection

This is an absolutely beautiful, stunning collection. With a wide variety of voices, tones, and styles, with works from across all ages of poetry, there is something here for everyone. I found myself dipping in and out of it over some months, savouring each poem and every word. It is a work I will return to, and it is a work that has sent me out buying works by some of the lesser known voices included here. For poetry lovers this anthology is a must.

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth keeping as a reference on your shelf. If you are ever struggling to find words for a eulogy to express how much someone meant to you or how their loss will affect you, it is worth turning to the poets and seeing how they express their loss

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the range of the selection included in this volume. I do wish that the notes included in the back were with the pieces they related to, I missed some of the context while reading.

I was particularly drawn to '38' by Layli Long Soldier. It was very unique and moving.

[Hanneke Van Keulen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you ever went to delve into the deepest roots of what it is to be Goth, this is a good place to start. From the ancient Greeks to Shelley and beyond this book offers a taste of what inspires the darker side of art, literature, and music even today.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the most cheery of reads but a quiet elegiac and masterful collection.

[James Carrigy · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

A pick n mix of grief.

[Fionnbharr Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have this in your collection: tell me you’re Irish without telling me you’re Irish.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely the best selected and curated of the contemporary Penguin poetry anthologies I’ve read, but the notes were so atrocious I’ve knocked a star off.