Dirge Without Music

from Revenant by Pamela Sue Mann

/

lyrics

By Edna St. Vincent Millay

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 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, “Dirge Without Music” from Collected Poems © 1928, 1955 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted with permission of Elizabeth Barnett and Holly Peppe, Literary Executors, The Millay Society.
Source: Collected Poems (HarperCollins, 1958)

credits

from Revenant, released February 20, 2021
Poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Music - David Carbonara
Music sculpting & arranging (Looping) - Pamela Sue Mann
Spoken Word - Shauna Kelly
Backing Vocals - Heather Flynn & Pamela Sue Mann

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Pamela Sue Mann New York, New York

An accomplished artist, Pamela forged her signature ethereal art-pop style with her self-titled album in 1999. She has since worked with the likes of Suzanne Vega, Gerry Leonard, and David Carbonara. Her recent collaborations with pop music icon Donna Lewis and internationally-recognized composer, producer David Baron (Michael Jackson, Bat For Lashes) are now available here. ... more

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