William Carlos Williams's poem "The Last Words of My English Grandmother" departs in many ways from traditional elegies. The composition does not follow a meter or a elegiac structure, although normally a poem with elegiac meter should consist of four iambs and have elegiac couplets (for its part, the elegiac couplet should consist of a dactylic hexameter followed by a line in dactylic pentameter.) This poem consists only of lines with three iambi, e. has four stanzas in quatrains. The Academy of American Poetry states that an elegy is traditionally "written in response to the death of a person or group" (poetic form). sassy grandmother discusses with the speaker how she is treated at the end of her life Offering a stark contrast to a normal elegy, no one is dead yet in this poem This is one of the major differences between Williams' elegy and the others. This poem also departs from the familiar conventions of elegy in tone, perspective, and emotional progression. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Williams' tone is different from that used in other elegies, as traditional elegies are laments. According to the Academy of American Poetry, a lament is “a poem or song that expresses sorrow” (Poetic Form). An elegy is used as a way for a poet to express feelings and memories for those who are no longer with us. The poet may not always be writing about a personal death, but perhaps about loss in general. In a traditional elegy, the speaker grieves or mourns passionately for those who have passed away. In this poem, the speaker provides us with none of these elements. The speaker is not grieving or mourning, because the grandmother is still alive in this story. Instead of lamenting, the speaker shares the memory of his dying grandmother, although it is not typical for an elegy to be a remembrance of the living. Overall, the narrative is about the strong-willed grandmother, who protests strongly to be taken to the hospital: Give me something to eat- I'm starving, I'm fine, I won't go to the hospital. No, no, no (Norton, 9-12). Instead of grieving passionately, the speaker expresses annoyance at the grandmother's situation. When the grandmother cries for food and begs to stay home, the speaker insists: Let me take you to the hospital, I said And after you get better you can do whatever you want (Norton, 20). In the fourth stanza, the speaker also suggests that the best path is to accept the grandmother's situation: that is, to accept that the grandmother is ill and needs to go to the hospital. Williams' narrator understands that it is time for Grandma to go and that she will soon be in a "better place" where she can do what she wants. The speaker's perspective in this poem is also unconventional. Normally, an elegy is a poem written by a survivor, about a person who has already passed away. Although the speaker in this poem is expressing a memory, that same speaker is not necessarily commemorating someone's death, because the grandmother is still alive. In this poem, William has two speakers. There is not only a speaker telling the story, but the grandmother also speaks. In many cases in the poem, the grandmother expresses her opinions about how she wants to experience the end of her life. “Is this what you call/make me comfortable?” (Norton, 23-24), he says, ridiculing the speaker. Furthermore, elegies usually look back on the life of the deceased person, but here the speaker is experiencing the grandmother's last moments before the mourning period. This configuration does not allow the speaker time to engage in the usual moment of mourning that would occur in a traditional elegy. The perspective changes from remembering or