A complaint is a lyric poem that gives voice to grief, sorrow, or a wrong suffered by the speaker. In older poetry, especially medieval and Renaissance verse, the word often names a poem of lament or protest, sometimes about love, loss, injustice, or the hardships of life.
Compared with a broad elegy, a complaint often sounds more personal and immediate, as if the poet is directly voicing an injury or asking for pity or redress.
Poetic form derived from the Latin in which poets bewail social evils or the vicissitudes of life e.g. Complaint to his Purse by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Example
I told the rain my empty bowl,
I told the wind my unpaid toll;
No bread, no gold, no lover's light,
Only the long, unkind night.
[n] (criminal law) a pleading describing some wrong or offense; "he was arrested on a charge of larceny"
[n] (civil law) the first pleading of the plaintiff setting out the facts on which the claim for relief is based
[n] an expression of grievance or resentment
[n] (formerly) a loud cry (or repeated cries) of pain or rage or sorrow
[n] an often persistent bodily disorder or disease; a cause for complaining