Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Complaint
Definition:
Lost loves, hypocritical bosses, dead pets, society as whole: Seems like old-school poets always had something to complain about. Fortunately for us literature buffs, those mopey scribes often wrote their laments down in nifty verses.
And thus the complaint was born. This disgruntled genre of poetry hit its peak in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, and is exactly what it sounds like: a poem in which the speaker lodges a complaint at someone or something.
In the mood for a poetic rant? Check out Sir Philip Sidney's "With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies!" It's part of a series of 108 sonnets Sidney wrote about a dude named Astrophel's massive crush on a chick named Stella.
108 sonnets? That's one heck of a complaint.