- description
- # DIRGE
## Overview
"DIRGE" is a chapter within the poetry collection "[John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H)". It is a poem extracted from the file "[john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4)" and is part of the larger "[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)" collection. This chapter follows "[POEMS FROM CLAREL](arke:01KG8AJKEHA0QEQ9JNNJD7P6CT)" and precedes "[EPILOGUE](arke:01KG8AJKEM1B9GENQ5GHACHPK1)".
## Context
This poem is a component of "[John Marr and Other Poems](arke:01KG8AJ5CWVMSM9AY2938E996H)", a collection of poetry. The collection itself is part of the comprehensive "[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)". The text was originally contained within the file "[john_marr_and_other_poems.txt](arke:01KG89J19Y3FNVN5KWASY78BP4)".
## Contents
The chapter contains the poem titled "DIRGE". The poem is a plea to Death, asking it to gently guide a departed soul, referred to as "her," to a peaceful afterlife. It describes a desire for her to avoid the underworld ("Orcus") and instead be led to a serene, moonlit land where she can await reunion with her lover. The poem suggests that if Death's shadow must fall upon her, it should only be as a gentle shade cast by a palm tree in a moonlit glade.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:09.574Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- DIRGE
- end_line
- 3966
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:32.310Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3941
- text
- DIRGE
Stay, Death, Not mine the Christus-wand
Wherewith to charge thee and command:
I plead. Most gently hold the hand
Of her thou leadest far away;
Fear thou to let her naked feet
Tread ashes—but let mosses sweet
Her footing tempt, where’er ye stray.
Shun Orcus; win the moonlit land
Belulled—the silent meadows lone,
Where never any leaf is blown
From lily-stem in Azrael’s hand.
There, till her love rejoin her lowly
(Pensive, a shade, but all her own)
On honey feed her, wild and holy;
Or trance her with thy choicest charm.
And if, ere yet the lover’s free,
Some added dusk thy rule decree—
That shadow only let it be
Thrown in the moon-glade by the palm.
- title
- DIRGE