A Dirge by Edith Nesbit (1906)
The poem is a lament for the passing of summer and the arrival of winter. The speaker rejects the charms of summer, preferring the bareness and cold of winter. They see summer as a time of false triumph and artificial beauty, and welcome the wild mourning of winter's wind-tossed boughs to drown the stillness of an empty house where children no longer come home.
By Edith Nesbit · First published 1906 · Genre: Poetry, Romantic, Gothic · 178 words
First lines
Let Summer go / To other gardens; here we have no need of her.
She smiles and beckons, but we take no heed of her, / Who love not Summer, but bare boughs and snow.
Set the snow free / To choke the insolent triumph of the year, / With birds that sing as though he still were here, / And flowers that blow as if he still could see.
Let the rose die -- / What ailed the rose to blow? she is not dear to us, / Nor all the summer pageant that draws near to us; / Let it be over soon, let it go by!
What this Textopian page supports
A Dirge is listed on Textopian as a poem by Edith Nesbit, dated 1906 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Edith Nesbit
- Date: 1906 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Romantic, Gothic
- Length: 178 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for A Dirge by Edith Nesbit
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Similar titles
- Requiem by Edith Nesbit
- The Ghost by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- Haunted by Edith Nesbit
- A Dirge In Gray by Edith Nesbit
- From The Grave by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- A Grave by Edith Wharton
Genres
- Poetry — The work is structured in verse form, with rhythmic and rhyming patterns, typical of poetry.
- Romantic — The work expresses deep emotional longing and loss, characteristic of the Romantic genre.
- Gothic — The work's focus on death, decay, and the passage of time aligns with Gothic themes.
Tags
Gothic Fiction · Victorian Era · Poetry · Death · Mourning · Loss · Sorrow · Melancholy · Dark Fantasy · Supernatural · Ghost Story · Haunted House