The Sundanese Tragedy

Sebuah Dirge adalah suatu komposisi lagu berupa ratapan atau hymne, ungkapan kesedihan dan dukacita biasanya untuk kematian. Dalam puisi, Dirge biasanya lebih pendek dan mendalam dibandingkan dengan Elegy. Satu puisi yang saya sering baca dan saya catat di telepon saya adalah puisi dari Christina Rosseti, penyair wanita jaman Victoria di abad 19.

A Dirge

By Christina Rossetti

Why were you born when the snow was falling?

You should have come to the cuckoo’s calling,

Or when grapes are green in the cluster,

Or, at least, when lithe swallows muster

For their far off flying

From summer dying.

Why did you die when the lambs were cropping?

You should have died at the apples’ dropping,

When the grasshopper comes to trouble,

And the wheat-fields are sodden stubble,

And all winds go sighing

For sweet things dying.