Funeral reading
Dirge Without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay
“Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay is a poem read at a funeral or memorial service. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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 of 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.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
Where it comes from
Edna St. Vincent Millay collected the poem in The Buck in the Snow and Other Poems, published by Harper in New York in 1928. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the first woman to receive it.
What it says
The speaker knows that the wise and the lovely have always gone into the ground and always will, and refuses to accept it anyway. What survives of a person, a phrase, a formula, is a fragment; the best of them is lost. The quick answers, the honest look, the laughter and the love have gone to feed the roses, and the roses are beautiful, but the speaker does not approve. The poem ends where it began: I know, but I do not approve, and I am not resigned. It offers no consolation on purpose.
Offers no comfort at all, on purpose. The right poem for an unfair death. Read at a funeral or memorial service. Themes: I am not resigned · refusing to be comforted · an unfair death · anger · no consolation offered · a young death.
Who it suits
An unfair death: a young person, a sudden accident, an illness that came far too early, or a brilliant and funny person whose loss makes no sense. It suits families who are angry and would find soft words insulting, and secular services where nobody wants to be told it was meant to be. It would jar at the funeral of a ninety-year-old who died peacefully; choose something gentler there.
Where it goes in the ceremony
In the middle of the service, usually after the eulogy has shown who was lost. Because it ends in protest rather than comfort, follow it with music, a moment of silence, or a gentler reading rather than going straight to the committal.
Reading it aloud
The text on this page is 184 words. At a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, which is slower than conversation, that comes to about a minute and a half of reading.
- The lines are long and uneven. Read them as speech, not verse, and let your breath follow the commas.
- Keep the anger contained. “I do not approve” works best said quietly, almost flatly.
- The lists (“the beautiful, the tender, the kind”) are where the room hears the person. Give each adjective its own beat.
- The last line repeats the first. Slow down so the room hears the circle close.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “Dirge Without Music” take to read aloud?
“Dirge Without Music” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “Dirge Without Music”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Dirge Without Music” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “Dirge Without Music” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the life, the remembrances, the committal — and knowing what comes next. Answer some questions about them and get the whole service, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Nighta minute and a halfThe other great refusal, aimed at a parent
- Invictus55 secondsDefiance with the head unbowed
- Lamentations 3:22–2635 secondsScripture that also starts from grief before comfort
- Remember55 secondsChristina Rossetti
- Requiem30 secondsRobert Louis Stevenson
- Crossing the Bar55 secondsAlfred, Lord Tennyson