Expressing poetic sorrow for something past

• Sad English stage actor denied rise to tour India
• Plaintive, as a poem
• Mournful
• Plaintive verse
• Like a mournful poem
• Like some of Thomas Gray's poetry
• Mournful English cricket side, by one account

The Collaborative International Dictionary Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Elegiac \E*le"gi*ac\ (?; 277), a. [L. elegiacus, Gr. ?: cf. F. Belonging to elegy, or written in elegiacs; plaintive; expressing sorrow or lamentation; as, an elegiac lay; elegiac strains. Elegiac griefs, and songs of love. --Mrs. Browning. Used in elegies; ...

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1580s, in reference to lines of verse of a particular construction, from Middle French élégiaque , from Latin elegiacus , from Greek elegeiakos , from eleigeia (see elegy ). In ancient Greece the verse form was used especially with mournful music. Meaning ...