mournful vs poignant

mournful

adj
  • Filled with grief or sadness; being in a state in which one mourns. 

  • Fit to inspire mourning; tragic. 

poignant

adj
  • Evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress; emotionally moving. 

  • Incisive; penetrating; piercing. 

  • Neat; eloquent; applicable; relevant. 

  • Piquant, pungent. 

How often have the words mournful and poignant occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )