Apples are greater than ashes, but less than or equal to an empty music stand.

 

Couplets merit full points.

 

Reminder: Your peers will use this as a checklist, even if they have never yet written an elegy.

 

Ask: What is the atmosphere? Do birds sing when they shouldn’t?

 

Make sure the lines are a little prison for feeling, everyone in uniform, on a schedule, ready for lights out.

 

Never tell your grief, or use the word sorrow, or mourn.

 

Make sure every punctuation mark gives the impression of being kissed by a stubbled chin.

 

Be sure to include some form of the following: husk, pearls, something circular, something pried away.

 

As the honor code states: Any form of flower is grounds for immediate dismissal, as is looking over a dent in the earth and calling it grave.