An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term elegy, which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious.n elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term elegy, which originally denoted a type of poetic meter (elegiac meter), commonly describes a poem of mourning. An elegy may also reflect something that seems to the author to be strange or mysterious.