eulogy

Genre of writing or speech in praise of a person. Eulogies are found in the work of the Ancient Greek poet Ion, in skaldic poetry (ancient Scandinavian poetry that honours heroes and their deeds), and in late 18th- and early 19th-century verse (for example, in a eulogy of Napolean (1806) by Italian poet Vincenzo Monti). A famous 20th-century example is a eulogy for Irish writer W B Yeats written by English-born US poet W H Auden.