Dirge Without Music

I do not approve of the shutting away of loving hearts in the cold ground.
So it is and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind.
Into the dark 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 & 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 look in your eyes than all the flowers in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave.
Quietly they go, the beautiful, the beneficent, the kind.
Gently they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.