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The Conventions of Pastoral Elegy (1) The lyric speaker begins by invoking the muses, and goes on to make frequent reference to other figures from classical mythology. (2) All nature joins in mourning the shepherd's death. (3) The mourner charges with negligence the nymphs or other guardians of the dead shepherd. (4) There is a procession of appropriate mourners. (5) The poet raises questions about the justice of fate, or else of Providence, and adverts to the corrupt conditions of his own times. Such passages, though sometimes called "digressions," are integral to the evolution of the mourner's thought in "Lycidas." (6) Post-Renaissance elegies often include an elaborate passage in which appropriate flowers are brought to deck the hearse. (7) There is a closing consolation. In Christian elegies, the lyric reversal from grief and despair to joy and assurance typically occurs when the elegist suddenly realizes that death in this world is the entry to a higher life. (From Abrams's Glossary of Literary Terms)
 
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