Re: Those Who Are Gone Now

Shawn Kammerdiener, 18 Aug 1992

Jess Anderson writes: Responding to David Christopher Rogers's excellent suggestion to add to the FAQ a list of motssers who are now gone, he begins:

>rob@mtdiablo.concord.ca.us (Rob Bernardo)

seth@pbhya.pacbell.com (Seth Miller)
[???] (Doug Mosher)
ozdaltx!root@uunet.uu.net (Robert Scott)

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to 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 lillies 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