Rachel Mann

Elegy is fascinating for me because it strikes me as a mode.

of privilege, really, historically.

We think of Gray's elegy, or we think of the elegiac writing that emerged after the First World War.

And so I have a quite complex relationship with elegy in one sense, because in one sense, as an educated, now middle-class white person, I find access readily to the language of

of elegy, but I also carry with me my working class heritage, my transness and my queerness.

And so the question is, who is worthy of grief?

Who is worthy of remembrance?

And I can draw on that from the histories of elegy,

But I also have to reformulate that.

And in my, you know, thank you for drawing attention to the poem.

There's a couple of poems from my dad who died on Christmas Day, 2021.

A guy who I love inordinately, but made, you know, he was not a person who made a huge mark on the world, a working class guy who left school at 14, 15.

And

to say, yes, he too is worthy of words which resonate or at least seek to resonate into the void, into the silence into which we will all be cast, because ultimately we will all be forgotten.

How that relates to violence, of course, again, it relates to notions of who is worthy of being remembered.

And when I think of my poem, you know, Eleanor is a murdered 16-year-old trans girl, I am reminded both that I'm seeking to do something which is about an honouring and a recognition

but it's complex and messy and disturbs and troubles me.

I've said on several occasions now that I read that poem and I'm not sure it makes me feel anxious.

Indeed, you know, the final line is something, sorry, I just need to try and dig this out.

The final line,