Elegiac – (1) of or composed in dactylic hexameter couplets, the second line (sometimes called a pentameter) having only an accented syllable in the third and sixth feet: the form was used for Greek and Latin elegies and various other lyric poems. (2) of, like, or fit for an elegy. (3) sad; mournful; plaintive

“In Nine Horses, Billy Collins, America’s Poet Laureate for 2001 – 2003, continues his delicate negotiation between the clear and the mysterious, the comic and the elegiac.”

back cover description of Nine Horses by Billy Collins, printed by Random House Inc, 2003