Poetry sums it up FTW

[truepenny]

(oursin linked to this, and I said, "Yeah. That's it exactly.")

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 precious 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

Comments

[rozk.livejournal.com]

Absolutely right.

I read this poem at Abigail Frost's funeral in 2009. It is one of the best things/

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Me neither. Not even a little bit.

What Diana's passing has done is to make me feel particularly fond of those friends who can still hear me when I speak to them. So, in case I've never said so directly, I want to say that I admire you tremendously, and am honored to have the entree into your life these posts have given me. Your occasional prose is no less graceful and intelligent than your fiction.

Milo's adventures are particularly prime.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

That poem is beautiful and very fitting given the kind of week it's been. I love Millay at all times, but this was perfect.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Delia, thank you. I love being your friend.

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

That's a poem that pulls on the heart.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this. As you say, just right.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

I have always loved that poem. Thank you for reminding me of it. (Though I'm now tearing up again.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

When I thought to make my last post, about those I've lost? This was in my head, and I meant it for my subject line. Only then I forgot, when I actually came to write it.

Thank you for reminding me. And yes.

[leahbobet.livejournal.com]

Oh. In tears again.