A jeremiad is a long literary work, in either poetry or prose, in which there is a lament over degeneracy. Sometimes it denounces a society for its wickedness.[1] It is named for the Biblical book of Jeremiah, and some prominent examples are Frederick Douglass' A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, wherein amidst the author's personal story he intersperses emotional and rational attacks upon the institution of slavery.