The Value of Persistence in Elong Assimellereng As an Asset For Character Building

Literary works have been present on this earth since time immemorial. This is the same for the Buginese people in South Sulawesi. Literary works in South Sulawesi are not only in the form of prose but are also found in the form of poetry. Poetry in Bugis society is called Elong. Elong as a reflection of Bugis society, of course, is full of and in line with the existing culture of the Bugis community. Thus, Elong is inseparable from traditions, conventions, beliefs, mindsets and even ideology. Therefore, literary works are of course full of values and meanings. One of the old poetry forms in Bugis society is elong. Etymogically, elong is defined as singing. Because elong is found in the Bugis community or in the Bugis to ugi, it is then shortened to elong ugi or elompugi. One of the elompugi that was found was elompugi assimellereng, namely elong which tells about the relationship between human beings. The research design used was descriptive qualitative. Data collection was carried out through field research and archival research, especially from the lontara manuscript archives. The research results obtained found that elong assimillereng is a poem that talks about the expression of affection for the opposite sex. This expression can mean feelings of love, anger and annoyance. Regardless the expression of feelings of love and anger because of rejection, there are actually educational values behind it.