Toy Boat

An elegy is a poem of mourning written on the occasion of a death, and traditional English elegies tended to focus on a single, specific death. “Toy Boat” is in many ways an elegy written “For Tamir Rice” after Rice was shot and killed by a police officer.

More so than most other types of poems, elegies imitate, reference, and relate to other elegies. As a result, to understand the literary context of Vuong’s poem, it is helpful to understand a little bit about the English elegiac tradition. Elegies changed radically in the 20th century. While older, traditional elegies tend to be elaborate, 20th century elegies tend to be comparatively spare. A traditional English elegy would likely include most—or all—of the following elements:

a repeated elegiac refrain; a description of the “laureate hearse” decked out in floral finery; an interrogation of the muses who fell asleep during their watch over the (now, unfortunately, dead) subject of the elegy; an enumeration and description of the procession of mourners; and nature’s horrified reaction to the death. . . . Ultimately, the longed-for consolation is often achieved through the apotheosis and objectification of the mourned, frequently through stellification (Connolly, Sally. Grief and