Joe's+Analysis

Joe's analysis for Dirge Without Music

The Poem “Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincint Malay discusses the fact that no matter who you are or what you did in life you will die. The speaker in the poem does not take a passive view of this fact. Although she knows what happens to people when they die she is not reconciled with that part of life. She will not give up hope because she knows that death is in her future.

When I look at the poem the thing that jumps out at me is the use of imagery. This use of outstanding imagery makes the poem really interesting to read. Instead of talking about death in a polite way, Malay uses images of graves, people being buried, and corpses turning to dust. This way of talking about death really makes you think about the way people die as something that is very real. In the first line of the poem instead of just saying people are buried Malay calls it “The shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.” Right away this makes the poem much more cold and harsh. I think that this works perfectly with the poem whose message is that the speaker doesn’t like the way that no matter what they do people will die. Another great image is in the second stanza “…into the earth with you/ Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.” Like the first image this one really makes you think of the grave yard. This one makes me think of the corpse in the ground slowly turning into dirt. Talking about what happens to the body after someone dies instead of what happens to the soul is a good way of showing the permanance of death, a point that is important in the poem. A third great use of imagery is in the last stanza where she says, “Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave.” Once again this gives us an image of a body being buried. This is the darkest of the images and it makes me think of a coffin slowly being lowered into the grave. In general the imagery of “Dirge without Music” makes me not think of death in easy and polite terms, like saying someone passed away. Instead the use of imagery makes me look at death directly and see that it is not something that is nice, easy or fair, but permanent.

In this poem Malay uses repetition often to reinforce points that she wants to emphasize. A line that is constantly repeated is some variation of "I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned." This is really the main point of the whole poem. That the author knows that people die no matter what they do in their life, doesn't like that people die no matter what they do, and the speaker is not resigned to this fact of life is the what this poem is all about. Repeating this theme in various forms at different points in the poem really empasizes that it is the most important part of the poem. It pretty much slaps you across the face. Having a short kind of catchy phrase repeated throughout the poem brings unity to the poem. It also makes the poem sound good.

Mallay's "Dirge without Music" has a bleak outlook on death. It does not beat around any bushes in saying that death happens to all and it is permanant. Despite all this the speaker does not give up hope. "Dirge without Music" is about not giving up in the face of death even though you can't beat it.