Grief

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Grief

Adonais

Shelley’s elegy for John Keats. [Br. Lit.: “Adonais” in Benét, 10]

Aedon

changed to nightingale for murdering son; her song funereal. [Gk. Legend: NCE, 24]

Aegiale (Aegle)

her tears of grief become amber. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 6]

All Souls’ Day

holy day of prayer for repose of departed souls. [Christianity: Brewer Dictionary, 1021]

arms reversed

visual symbol of grieving. [Heraldry: Jobes, 128]

Artemisia

(fl. 4th century B.C.) built Mausoleum to commemorate husband. [Gk. Hist.: Walsh Classical, 32]

Balder (Baldur)

when he was slain, all things on earth wept. [Scand. Myth: Brewer Dictionary, 70]

Canens Janus’s

daughter; cried herself to death over disappearance of husband, Picus. [Rom. Myth.: Zimmerman, 49]

Ceres

grieving over the loss of her daughter Persephone, she withholds her gifts from the earth, thus bringing on winter. [Gk. Myth.: Hamilton Mythology, 49]

Clementine

forty-niner’s drowned daughter; “lost and gone forever.” [Am. Music: Leach, 236]

cypress

symbol of mourning. [Flower Symbolism: Jobes, 402]

dandelion

symbol of grief. [Flower Symbolism: Jobes, 413]

Eos

inconsolably weeps for slain son, Memnon. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 1065]

Grief

Adams memorial by St.- Gaudens in Washington, D. C. [Am. Art: EB, VIII: 781]

Hecuba

mourns the death of her children. [Gk. Drama: Benét, 450]

Hyacinthus

beautiful youth, accidentally killed; from his blood sprang flower marked with letters Al, a lament. [Gk. Myth: Howe, 134]

In Memoriam

Tennyson’s tribute to his friend, A. H. Hallam. [Br. Lit.: Harvey, 808]

Kaddish

a prayer said for a close relative. [Judaism: Jobes, II, 901]

Kinah

woeful dirge recited on Tishah b’Av. [Judaism: Wigoder, 342]

Kumalo, Rev. Stephen Zulu

clergyman saddened by fate of fellow blacks. [South African Lit.: Cry, the Beloved Country]

Libbeus the Apostle

gentlest apostle, dies from despair at Christ’s death. [Ger. Lit.: The Messiah]

Lycidas

Milton’s elegy for his friend, Edward King (1637). [Br. Lit.: NCE, 1781]

marigold

symbol of grief. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 175]

Niobe

weeps unceasingly for her murdered children. [Gk. Myth.: Wheeler, 259]

O Captain! My Captain!

Whitman’s elegy commemorating Lincoln’s death. [Am. Lit.: Benét, 726]

On My First Son

Ben Jonson’s short poem mourning the death of his first son. [Br. Lit.: Norton, 243]

Pietà

representation of sorrowing Virgin with dead Christ. [Art: Hall, 246]

poppy

symbol of consolation. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 176; Kunz, 329]

Rachel

massacre of innocents fulfills prophecy that she will weep. [N.T.: Matthew 2:18; Jeremiah 31:15]

red on blue

symbol of death and mourning. [Chinese Art: Jobes, 357]

shivah

seven days of grieving following close relative’s burial. [Judaism: Wigoder, 550]

swallow

bird that cried “consolation” at Lord’s crucifixion. [Animal Symbolism: Brewer Dictionary, 1050]

Tishah be’Av

(9th of Av) Jewish day of lamentation for destruction of Temple. [Judaism: Wigoder, 51]

Wailing Wall

Western wall where Jews lament the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem. [Judaism: EB, X: 627]

weeping willow

symbolizes grief at loss. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 178]

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d

Whitman poem mourns the death of Lincoln. [Am. Lit.: Benét, 1085]