Complaint
A poem of lamentation that addresses a grievance or unfulfilled longing.
About the Complaint
The complaint is a lyric poem in which the speaker laments their condition, typically unrequited love, the cruelty of fortune, or the failings of the world. It flourished in medieval and Renaissance poetry, and it cares more about the texture of grievance than about resolution.
Structure
No fixed metrical or rhyme scheme. The form is defined by mode rather than shape: a sustained address to an absent beloved, an unjust power, or one's own fate, often building through accumulation of grievance.
A complaint has no fixed meter or rhyme. It is defined by its mood: a sustained lament addressed to an absent lover, an unjust power or fate itself.
A Short History
- 1300sChaucer writes complaints, including one to his empty purse.
- 1591Edmund Spenser publishes his collection Complaints.
- 1609Shakespeare's A Lover's Complaint appears with his Sonnets.
- TodayPoets still write laments for love, loss and injustice.
Famous Complaints
- 01"The Complaint of Chaucer to His Purse"Geoffrey Chaucer
- 02"Complaints" (1591, a collection)Edmund Spenser
- 03"A Lover's Complaint" (1609)William Shakespeare
Questions About the Complaint
The things people ask most, answered in a sentence or two.