Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts
in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time
out of mind.
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the
lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not
resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, - but the best is
lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the
laughter, the love, -
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses.
Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know.
But I do not approve.
More prcious was the light in your eyes than all
the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the
grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the
kind.
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the
brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not
resigned.
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
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