planh

Planh is a genre of medieval Occitan and Catalan lyric poetry that means "lament." It was a principal form used by troubadours to mourn the death of a patron, noble, or beloved figure, and to honor the deceased while urging memory and virtue to persist in the living.

Planhs are typically elegiac monologues in which the speaker addresses the dead or God, recalls the virtues of the deceased, and calls the community to commemorate the person’s legacy. The tone is restrained and ceremonial, often employing courtly rhetoric and, at times, political overtones that reflect the patronage system of the time.

Historically, planh flourished from the 12th to the 14th centuries in Occitania (southern France) and the Catalan-speaking lands, with many examples preserved in troubadour and later manuscript chansonniers. They exist alongside other lyric forms such as cançons, sirventes, and alba, forming part of the broader Occitan and Catalan troubadour tradition.

Etymology-wise, planh derives from the Occitan planh, from Latin planctus, meaning lament or lamentation. In scholarly practice, planh is treated as a distinct elegiac lyric genre within the troubadour and vernacular poetry of medieval Iberian and Romance-language literatures.

In modern scholarship, planh is studied for its social function—how memory, patronage, and poetic authority interact in ceremonial mourning—and for its linguistic and formal characteristics within the broader context of medieval European lyric poetry.