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 have 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.

Dirge: Funeral Song Dirge Without Music: Poem mourning the dead. The title is unusual because while the poem is about death, it does not follow the function of, for example, a eulogy. Also by calling it a dirge, it is implied that Millay is in fact resigned to the facts of death, since she identifies her poem as such. The title is also something of a paradox since dirges are pieces of music.

This poem uses simple language and we understand what all the words mean. The surface meaning of the poem is easy to identify, though there are obviously more complicated elements of the poem. It shows the psychological struggles of the poet in a very intimate manner. There are no allusions to historical events. people, or places.

To paraphrase the surface meaning of this poem, Edna St. Vincent Millay is saying that people have always, and will always, die. While this will never stop, she is not happy with it and "does not approve" of it.

line by line paraphrase: I am not ok with the fact that lover's heart will be put in the ground even though it always has been this way the wise and the beautiful are put into the ground with the plants, but i am not ok with that

Lovers and thinkers will go into the earth and will be one with the dirt. all the remains will be a a small part of your identity, but the best parts will be gone

the intelligence, the expressiveness and love will be gone the remains will feed the roses, which are beautiful and fragrant, which i know but do not approve of because a rose can never be as beautiful as your eyes

the go down into the dark grave they go without a fight; all the wonderful people (repeat) i am aware of this, but i don't approve and i am not ok with that Devices:

Imagery: The author uses the image of being underground to show death. She uses this image all through out the poem. She talks about being underneath the flowers. She talks about people decomposing and becoming flowers, but she says that no flowers are as beautiful as "the light in your eyes"

Repetition One device that is used is repetition. The phrase "I am not resigned" is used at the beginning of the first line of the first stanza, the end of the last line of the first, and at the end of the last line of the last stanza. This repetition really emphasizes that although the author knows that everyone dies she is still not going to give in to it. In the last stanza the second and third lines are very similar "Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind /Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave" This helps show that all pass on no matter what the did in life. Another instance of repetition is the phrase "I know. But I do not approve." This is used in the second stanza and at the end of the last stanza. This repetition really emphasizes the authors disapproval of the fact that death comes to all no matter what they did in life.

The Tone: The poem seems to have a somber but restless tone, as it is mostly deep, serious, and sad; however, the poet is unwilling settle for it. It mostly stays the same way throughout the poem, because the poem has no real "turn" and stays mostly the same throughout. We think of it as somber because she writes it that way in talking about death, while it is restless because she is unwilling to accept it and doesn't want to keep it that way.

The diction: The poem uses words to describe death that are very blunt. This gives the poem a down to earth feeling. There is no attempt to try to use words that make death seem less real. All the words that are used in this poem are words that aren't hard to understand.

Syntax, Sound and Structure: This poem uses a fairly simple syntax and avoids long or overly complex sentences. Some of the punctuation used, like the colon at the end of the second line, goes against strict convention but is clearly used to advantage in the poem. The sentences are mostly short and periods are often used in places where one would expect to see a comma, like in the third stanza where it says " Elegant and curled/ Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve." Many poets would chose to use a comma or semi-colon instead of being more abrupt and using a period. Because of this, the poem has a lightly halting sound. As the convention in contemporary poetry goes, Millay does not always end a clause of sentence at the end of a line but lets it continue into the next line. We did not find any specific structure in the poem, aside from each stanza being four lines and the ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GHGH rhyme scheme. The first and third stanzas have longer lines, and the second and fourth have shorter lines.

Poet history: Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) was a poet and playwright who was an important part of the Bohemian Greenwich Village scene during the 1920's. Millay was raised by her single mother who taught her and her sisters to be self sufficient and to appreciate art and music. In 1912 her first poem was published, which won her a scholarship to Vassar. While in college she continued to write poetry and also became involved in the theater. After college she moved to Greenwich village, where she wrote constantly and lived and a wild and bohemian life. In 1923, she married Eugen Boissevain, who managed Millay's carreer. During their marriage, the couple remained "sexually open." //Dirge Without Music// was published in //The Buck in the Snow and Other Poems// (1928). //The Buck in the Snow, and Other Poems// moved contained some of Millay's more bitter and socially conscious poetry, a theme which //Dirge// fits well into. The collection was received well in England. Dec. 2009. . ||
 * || "Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)." //Poetry Foundation//. N.p., 2009. Web. 6

Dec. 2009. . ||
 * || " Edna St. Vincent Millay." //Poets.org//. Academy of American Poets, 2009. Web. 10

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