elegiacal

comparative more elegiacal · superlative most elegiacal

1. elegiac; expressing sorrow.

   It is an exquisite addition to a branch of English literature, which is already very rich, the poetry of elegiacal regret.

   1891, Edmund Gosse, Gossip in a Library, Lovell, →OCLC, page 311

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   He gratefully sings unto God—yet follows this up with an elegiacal lamentation of his own suffering, not unmixed perhaps with the sorrows of afflicted patriotism.

   1848, Thomas Chalmers, Posthumous Works of the Rev. Thomas Chalmers: Daily Scripture Readings, volume 3, Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 373

   Shakespeare antagonized the queen by permitting his play to be performed on the eve of the Essex rebellion, and he persisted in his contempt for her by refusing to write any elegiacal verses on Elizabeth's death.

   1988, Jay Roberts, Richard II: An Annotated Bibliography (Garland Shakespeare bibliographies), volume 1, Garland, →ISBN, page 46