Word: elegiac
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Reading the elegiac prose of one such as Victorian art critic John Ruskin, conversely, does far more to inspire genuine environmentalism than do blind imperatives to recycle. In his memoirs, Ruskin writes of the pristine Alps, meadows, and lilac trees of his childhood, noting that these were eventually paved through by railroads and left “filthy with cigar ashes” by travelers who “knocked the paling about, roared at the cows, and tore down what branches of blossom they could reach.” Nature writing in cases like this is not mere romanticism...
...later 1960s Twombly's layered scribbles became more regular, filling the picture with rhythmic webs. Working in that manner he produced a series of exquisite paintings dedicated to Nini Pirandello, a friend who had died. Oscillating in a thin wash of pigment, his lines have an elegiac feel, one of fading sensations and of words attempted but never arrived...
...talk about "full speed on to the White House," there was an unmistakably elegiac tone to Hillary Clinton's primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey "that has been a blessing...
...years I talk to her / nearly every day.” Here there is no soapbox, only a frighteningly casual realization of mortality tempered with the constant desire to avoid death. Such ideas may not be new, but the understatement makes them as tangible as ever. Simultaneously celebratory and elegiac, it’s surprising that Paley’s voice, capable of speaking confidently on every subject, is still so aware of its own limitations. She says as much with the same personal, confident finality with which she approaches everything: “I know I have gone...
...long-term strategy. You blast away for weeks, the smoke settles...and the press is still there. After Clinton's strong showing Tuesday, the limelight is likely to swing back her way. She won't look as much like an abused underdog, and her coverage will feel less elegiac. Nothing dims the glow of sympathy like success...