Literary notes about dirge (AI summary)
In literature, dirge is often employed to evoke a profound sense of mourning and loss, serving both as a literal funeral song and a metaphor for emotional desolation. Authors describe it as a sound that floats over landscapes or resonates from within a character’s very being, imbuing scenes with a haunting, inevitable sadness [1, 2]. In some instances, the term is used to depict natural sounds—like the lapping of waves or the moan of the wind—that seem to carry the weight of sorrow, blurring the line between nature's lament and human grief [3, 4]. At other times, a character’s voice or a narrative’s tone is rendered as “dirge-like,” reinforcing themes of despair and fate throughout the work [5, 6, 7].
- He lay silent while the dirge floated up the mountain-side and died away among the heather of the peak.
— from Daireen. Volume 1 of 2 by Frank Frankfort Moore - No sound—no movement—utter stillness—only, from without, the mourning of the surf, like a dirge now.
— from The Miracle Man by Frank L. (Frank Lucius) Packard - And hoarse waves ring her funeral dirge; The chafing billows round her close;
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - how the frost curtains the windows: how dirge-like the wind moans: how like a great, white pall the snow covers the ground.
— from Fern Leaves from Fanny's Port-folio.Second Series by Fanny Fern - "I have come, brother," she said, in a voice that was in itself almost dirge-like, "to see how you are getting on."
— from The Cruise of the Make-Believes by Tom Gallon - " She did not answer, but went on, in a tone which was a soliloquy rather than an exclamation, and a dirge rather than a soliloquy.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - But they bore nothing to her but a dirge, which maddened her to think that murderers should mourn.
— from The Piazza Tales by Herman Melville
