Monody
A monody is a poem of mourning spoken by one voice, usually lamenting the death of one person. It is related to elegy and lament, but the emphasis is on a single speaker grieving a particular loss. A monody may be formal, lyrical, songlike, restrained, or openly sorrowful.

A monody often includes direct grief, memory, address to the dead, loneliness, praise, regret, unanswered questions, and a movement between private sorrow and formal expression. It may or may not find consolation. The poem’s force comes from one voice carrying the weight of loss.

To write a monody, choose the person or figure being mourned. Let one speaker address the loss directly or speak from inside it. Use concrete details rather than only abstract grief. The poem may remember a voice, chair, road, hand, habit, room, season, or object connected to the dead.

After the Burial

Your coat still hangs beside the stair,
One sleeve turned inside out.
I pass it swiftly, as if there
You’re standing still yet stout.

The kettle steeps. The window weeps.
The road is wet with rain.
I speak your name as if you, it keeps
Yet hear no voice again.

“After the Burial” follows the monody form because one speaker mourns one person’s death. The grief is focused, private, and direct. The coat, kettle, window, road, and name carry the speaker’s sorrow without needing to explain it heavily.

Monody is a traditional poetic mode. A monody may be written in rhyme, free verse, song form, prayer, or dramatic speech. A stricter monody keeps its focus on one death and one mourning voice. A looser WoPoLian version may mourn a vanished place, childhood self, lost animal, or dead dream, provided the poem still feels like a single voice lamenting a single loss.