Dirge Without Music - Millay

A much-loved husband died this spring. His widow posted an excerpt of this poem on her blog. A father of a friend died this spring. I enclosed a copy of this poem in the note I sent her.

... I didn't realize this poem would speak for me so soon.



Dirge without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1928)

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.

[...]

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.